Regional Engagement - SUB-STRATEGY - 2020-2030

The University of Wolverhampton is a civic university, committed to prioritising sustainability, people, skills needs, the economy, culture and the general health and wellbeing of the citizens in our communities – wherever we operate. As an anchor institution, we are committed to inclusive growth for the region.

The foundations of the University of Wolverhampton are firmly anchored in uplifting the local community, skilling the local workforce and enabling work opportunity. Having a finger on the pulse of change and technological advancement defines the early history of what is now the University of Wolverhampton. The 19th century Mechanics Institutes, developing skills for local people, and the later Art School, paved the way for an institution with skills training at its core. We have evolved from the industrial pattern-cutting and coach building courses of over a hundred years ago to cybersecurity and engineering for the 21st century. While our current reach is regional, national and global, that rootedness in local development, close cooperation with our communities and a commitment to the Black Country define the DNA of our University; we are an institution with a firm sense of our immediate environment, the place we call home, and the people, businesses, educational institutions and charitable organisations we call our neighbours, our supporters and whom we serve.

The Black Country and the West Midlands are an area with a broad geographical spread. Our main campus bases straddle both sides of the major M6 artery, Walsall to the east and City Campus in Wolverhampton to the west as well as Telford, Shropshire to the west off the M54. We have invested in Science and Technology Parks in Wolverhampton and Telford and have expanded our reach into new locations by taking learning to communities through Regional Learning Centres and the creation of specialist discipline-based facilities to align with local needs. Beyond our physical locations, we operate virtually across the world supporting learning, research, innovation and technology in a range of contexts.

Our vison and current practice are rooted in collaboration with local communities which range from the civic, across industry and business to the third sector and education; and that process is not one-way, we consult, listen, and validate local voices and needs.

Work, including employment, employability fostering skills, range of opportunity, growth of industry and employer development, is the major challenge of the post-industrial landscape we occupy. This is matched by environmental concern. These two urgencies require the university to collaborate with partners and communities to address the crises of inequalities including poverty, health, housing, work, environmental improvement and social stability generally.

Our Regional Engagement Strategy lays out our approach for delivering inclusive growth in our region over the next 10 years as part of our continuing story.

Vision

As with our history and contribution since 1827, our vision for 2030 remains the same: to be a University firmly rooted in its place with a focus on social, economic and cultural enrichment.

Drawing on the solid foundations we have established of responsiveness and innovation, partnership working and collaborations and demonstrating the transformative role that learning and knowledge play in shaping place, we will continue to act as a potent force for change.

We will focus on:

Being:

• a leader in innovation, discovery and application
• a provider of access to opportunity
• recognised as a partner of choice

Page Growing:

• graduate level roles within the regional economy
• learning opportunities near home/work
• providing skills programmes for future prosperity

Creating a place:

• for the whole community to believe they belong in and in which they can thrive
• where the role of learning and innovation are understood and valued.

Commitments

Our pledges to ensure that this vision will be realised are based on two levels of commitment based on who we work with and the benefits that will be achieved

We will:

• Work with our students
• Work with our staff
• Work with communities
• Work with our key strategic partners
• Work with businesses

Purposive engagement, in all its forms, sits at the heart of our regional engagement commitment:

• for societal and civic benefit this will be achieved through activities and investment in learning regions/cities and towns, partnerships the key organisations such as the NHS, Regional Learning Centres and the work of the Institute of Community Research and Development (ICRD) and research institutes in health, the Wolverhampton Anchor Network and our ongoing role in Covid-19 response and recovery activity and initiatives linked to sustainability;
• for economic benefit achieved through knowledge exchange and regeneration activities, the spectrum of offer to businesses, investment and supporting the creation of a skilled workforce;
• for cultural benefit achieved through our work in Cultural Compacts in our places, investment in the Centre for Screen and PS, and partnership working linked to the British Art Show 9, the Black Country Living Museum through the Black Country Studies Centre (BCSC) and work with and on behalf of specific communities e.g. the Sikh and Punjabi Studies Centre other strategic initiatives to grow our places;
• with policy development and implementation achieved through working regionally and nationally with the HE sector, professional and regulatory bodies, MPs, LEPs, WMCA, and county and local authorities and other education providers to shape policy to reflect the changing social and economic landscape
• with schools, colleges and adult learning providers achieved through partnerships, sponsorships, collaborative working and engagement with schools, including our MAT schools, colleges and other learning providers and skills networks to align with the needs of all potential learners making access to HE easier including the Office for Students’ requirements linked to our Access and Participation Plan and other widening participation, equality and diversity and social mobility objectives.
• to connect local to national and global 5 | Page achieved through links to Global Opportunities Strategy, the Centre for International Development and Training (CIDT), working with/alongside West Midlands Combined Universities (WMCU), WMGC, the Combined Authority, LAs and others vis inward investment, and
• which benefits our staff and students achieved through developments that improve the lives of academic and professional services staff and our students.

Key Strategic Priorities

We will deliver our Sub-strategy for RE by focusing on the core areas for action to achieve social, economic and cultural enrichment by working to achieve growth by:

• shaping policy and place,
• taking our knowledge to those who need it,
• innovating and investing and
• demonstrating the transformative power of universities in their place.

This sub-strategy acts as the mechanism to unite four cross-cutting aspects of the University’s work.

• engagement with business,
• current and future skills needs
• strengthening places through public and community engagement
• ensuring that the role that learning plays in transformation is reflected through lifelong learning. These areas cut across the departments, schools, faculties and professional services teams in the University.

Each is supported by a separate strategy where Professional Services Directorates work in partnership with Faculties and OVC to achieve the key outcomes.

With the introduction of the Knowledge Exchange Framework, we understand the role that the OVC will play in ensuring a commitment to constant innovation and change in the current economic and political climate as well as regional and local agendas and this will shape the responses by staff in faculties and directorates in the next decade.

Based on this, the 9 strategic priorities of the RE Sub-strategy which are both cross-cutting and specific are:

• Invest in the economic needs and skills demands of our Place
• Offer Higher Education at the point of need
• Refocus our curriculum to ensure it provides graduates with the skills employers want
• Have a major low-cost Adult Learning Programme
• Ensure our experience connect students with the community and business
• Have an outreach programme that is embedded as part of the school calendar
• Have a major volunteering programme
• Have 4 science and technology parks that focus on innovation and entrepreneurship
• Increase our start-up business support

Business Engagement

The University of Wolverhampton is passionate and committed to developing strong relationships with businesses across the region, to developing sustainable workforce and closing the skills gap in line with the local industrial strategy and strategic economic plans and supporting and enabling innovation and technological and environmental changes in the next decade. In so doing, it is contributing to the continued economic and social growth of the places we serve.

Our regional business engagement activities focus on facilitating relationships with local, regional, national, international employers, enterprise, community, civic, and public sector organisations regardless of size. This will enable us to support achievement through enhanced teaching and learning, student and graduate employability, executive training, innovation, research and knowledge exchange activities contributing to local and regional economic growth. These intentions are embedded in the Business Engagement strategy.

Our business engagement activities are mapped against the ongoing work of the National Centre for Universities and Business and their State of the Relationship Report 2020 which addresses ongoing macro challenges including the impacts of Covid-19 and Brexit, the changing skills environment, research and development and levelling up and place mapping. Regional collaboration between universities and business will be vital to addressing these and other emerging issues.

In the next 10 years were are committed to delivering four Science and Technology parks that will focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. We will increase our start-up business support. This strand of activity will link to the Students and Education and Global Opportunities sub-strategies by ensuring that we use our expertise to connect students with the community and business and our investment in the economic needs and skills demands of our place.

Current and future skills needs

 In line with national imperatives to increase productivity through skills, the University of Wolverhampton has positioned itself to support a stronger and more inclusive growth plan for skills and productivity as the West Midlands region and surrounding areas to grow the economy.

Skills and education are at the heart of economic success and the University is a critical catalyst for delivering the higher skills agenda and move towards higher technical education. We want to ensure that our students have social mobility opportunities as part of the skills and qualifications we offer as well as in the sectors we are supporting. The West Midlands region in particular, is looking to support people into work and to achieve higher levels of occupational achievement by increasing the offer and reach in key sectors such as Digital, Built Environment, Health and Sciences. There are 156,000 people in the region without a Level 4 (or higher) qualification and this often impedes progression into higher level skilled occupations.

Apprenticeships and Technical Education are key enablers in supporting employers and their employees into occupations that can bring diversification and growth in these sectors. Enterprise and employability skills will remain key components of supporting our students and graduates to progress into jobs, start-up businesses, volunteering, placements and internships. In 2020, the National Students Survey results for Employability and Skills, ranked the University of Wolverhampton employability offer above national satisfaction rate by 3.27%.

Faculties have played a crucial role in supporting the workforce and economic success during the pandemic. For example, the Business School developed a demand-led service based on the needs of local and regional employers in key areas such as resilience and the Faculty of Health and Wellbeing provided a trained workforce through staff and student contributions to the NHS through, nursing, emergency services, radiography and administrative support and backup.

We will strengthen our existing response to the needs of our region through provision of a skilled workforce, progression opportunities from level to level, partnerships with employers, further education and training providers; support people in work to upskill through continuing professional development, Degree apprenticeships and workforce development; we will ensure that people can upskill, reskill and refresh their skills to match the changing workforce needs through flexible lifelong learning models. We will invest in state of the art resources and facilities to ensure that our provision addresses the changing challenges facing our region in areas such as cybersecurity, medical technology, big data and other forms of innovation.

Core priorities of this sub-strategy are to refocus our curriculum to ensure that it provides our graduates with the skills that employers need. This forms part of the complete work on will undertake by investing in the economic needs and skills demands of our place.

Public and Community Engagement

As the ‘University of Opportunity’, our place informs our strategic approach.

As Vision 2030 states, we believe that ‘universities are about transforming society by ensuring the needs of their place and people are at the heart of what they do’ (Vision 2030) and our public and community engagement (P&CE) addresses ‘people in their place’. This ethos sits at the heart of the Regional Engagement Strategy.

Unlike other universities where P&CE is a separate strand, the social 7 | Page and economic challenges of our place necessitates an embedded, whole-institution approach. Our region shapes the University’s future and we help to shape it to achieve mutual benefit. Commitment to opportunity is guided by values of equity, inclusion and diversity, shapes our collaboration and partnership approach and ensures that P&CE is strategically embedded focusing on addressing the specific, prioritised needs which are agreed with our partners/communities (and which have been further exacerbated by COVID-19) to achieve long-term sustainable impact.

Our resources, support, and activities are targeted and predicated on creating/enhancing opportunity by removing barriers to prosperity for communities. Given the complexity of the challenges in West Midlands and Black Country towns/cities and the size of our footprint, we are clear about the contribution we make as an anchor institution in bringing employment/skills/learning/funding and innovation and we work reciprocally with our public/communities. As the University of Opportunity, we strive to engage with work with our communities. We pride ourselves on working in partnership, engaging with our local population and have a commitment to the wellbeing of all residents regardless of age or background. Our staff, students and alumni live and work within the place that we serve.

We make a difference to the lives of people in a range of ways in our place by taking knowledge to our public and communities in ways they will enjoy, understand and engage with:

Access and Outreach work: we focus on ensuring that we open up access to learners of all ages who have not previously had the opportunity to engage with higher education. We run programmes and initiatives led by passionate and expert faculty staff giving them hands-on experiences and myth busting sessions and the Gateway team provide a one-stop[1]shop for all mature learners, supporting them when considering their return to education.

Research and training: we work with in/with and for communities through our research institutes undertaking community development work to improve the life chance of individuals in the region, and provide training and capacity building.

Events and engagement activities: we take our expertise to the public and our communities through festivals, public lectures and productions including the Formula 3 Cup Racing team and STEM response team which brings science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) alive in schools, community spaces, theatres to increase understanding and accessibility for all. We engage the public in the life of the University through public lectures and community learning events on the spectrum university expertise.

The Arena Theatre: has a national reputation for support the work of disabled artists and endeavours to make its work fully accessible to the widest audience, as well as working to develop the next generation of theatre professionals through its comprehensive development programmes.

Partnership working: by working in partnership we respond to local and regional needs and support economic and social growth in areas such as digital innovation, health, construction and engineering, cyber security and education.

Alumni: Our alumni are one of the universities best ambassadors and supporters and they play a key role in supporting the University. With the majority of our alumni coming from our local communities and intending to work in them upon graduation or already working in them and studying part-time, we support them to take an active role in the communities we serve. They support our regional employability, whether it be via professional mentoring, volunteer and placement opportunities, apprenticeships or careers talks, to ongoing career support, notification of job vacancies, networking opportunities, professional events and career exposure.

The key priority actions in this sub-strategy linked to Public and Community Engagement are focused on connecting our students with the community and business through initiatives such as the creation of a major volunteering programme and initiatives that build strong and clear connections between students and businesses and through our knowledge exchange activity.

Transformation through Lifelong Learning

As the University of Opportunity, lifelong learning sits at the heart of our regional engagement activity, allowing all people whatever their background or circumstances, to fulfil their potential and realize their ambitions in supportive learning environments in a range of community locations and through our public engagement activity. We understand the role that learning of all types plays in transforming the lives of people and we work to ensure that everyone can access learning and are supported by us to achieve their goals.

As more than fifty percent of our students are mature, their support needs are of paramount importance to us alongside those of school and college leavers. This makes us a unique university and our response centers on three strands of activity: taking learning to the community, working in partnership to create clear progression pathways and through innovation.

Whilst lifelong learning sits at the heart of the institution, the Centre for Lifelong Learning works with faculty experts to build opportunities for learners of all ages and learning of all types to engage across our regional footprint. We have created Regional Learning Centres (RLCs) in key locations and the centre staff work with subject experts to provide flexible courses, Continuing Professional Development programmes and outreach activities to people of all ages in communities and workplaces. We bring learning alive through innovation using events that bring people of all ages together to share the joy of learning something new using approaches such interactive activities, shows, workshops and public lectures and talks by experts on all aspects of the University’s work. Through our approach to lifelong learning, we celebrate the region’s creative and cultural life.

As the University of Opportunity, lifelong learning sits at the heart of our regional engagement activity, allowing all people whatever their background or circumstances, to fulfil their potential and realize their ambitions in supportive learning environments in a range of community locations and through our public engagement activity. We understand the role that learning of all types plays in transforming the lives of people and we work to ensure that everyone can access learning and are supported by us to achieve their goals.

As more than fifty percent of our students are mature, their support needs are of paramount importance to us alongside those of school and college leavers. This makes us a unique university and our response centers on three strands of activity: taking learning to the community, working in partnership to create clear progression pathways and through innovation.

Whilst lifelong learning sits at the heart of the institution, the Centre for Lifelong Learning works with faculty experts to build opportunities for learners of all ages and learning of all types to engage across our regional footprint. We have created Regional Learning Centres in key locations and the centre staff work with subject experts to provide flexible courses, Continuing Professional Development programmes and outreach activities to people of all ages in communities and workplaces. We bring learning alive through events that bring people of all ages together to share the joy of learning something new using approaches such interactive activities, shows, workshops and public lectures and talks by experts on all aspects of the University’s work. Through our approach to lifelong learning, we celebrate the region’s creative and cultural life.

In addition to the University’s mainstream recruitment activity, we work with learning provider partners to enable clear progression routes and a seamless learning journey for adults who are sometimes taking a different route to school leavers i.e. from community learning, adult education, further education and/or private training providers. We offer information, advice and guidance about what it means to return to study as a mature student and our dedicated Gateway team provide specialist support on finance and application processes. In a city-wide partnership we are seeking to put learning at the heart of Wolverhampton through the Wolverhampton City Learning Region.

The core priorities of this sub-strategy are linked to offering Higher Education at the point of need. We will do this though ensuring the provision of a major low-cost adult learning programme, having a clearly defined Access and Lifelong Learning strategy and an outreach programme that is embedded as part of the school calendar.

Success Measures

The long term visionary metrics to be achieved by 2030 and linked to our goals, commitments and priorities are:

As outlined in the Vision 2030 Strategy and embedded above, the 9 strategic priorities of the RE Sub-strategy which are both cross-cutting and specific are:

• Invest in the economic needs and skills demands of our Place
• Offer Higher Education at the point of need
• Refocus our curriculum to ensure it provides graduates with the skills employers want
• Have a major low-cost Adult Learning Programme
• Ensure our experience connect students with the community and business
• Have an outreach programme that is embedded as part of the school calendar
• Have a major volunteering programme
• Have 4 science and technology parks that focus on innovation and entrepreneurship
• Increase our start-up business support These will be delivered through the four strands of action and high level activity lead by OVC.

High level

To achieve the high level vision of this strategy, the University through its strategic oversight will:

• maintain effective relationships with all key strategic partner organisations and individuals over the next decade to ensure that it continues to be positioned to influence policy agendas and plays a significant role in shaping the region membership on key strategic groups, strategic funding for regeneration initiative
• ensure that it maintains and/or improves on the initial KEF results year on year KEF results maintained and/or improved in each measure
• steers and supports internal work by faculties and departments related to regional engagement and knowledge exchange to ensure that it is innovative, responsive and relevant to shifting priorities nationally, regionally and locally faculty and directorate strategic and operational plans reflect regional priorities

Business Engagement

The Regional Engagement Sub-strategy is underpinned by the Business Engagement Strategy in the following ways:

• Inclusive student success, and world-class research are supported by our engagement and collaboration with employers and industry key representation by employers and businesses on our course advisory boards
• The future prosperity of the university is underpinned by our income generation activities year on year growth in activity and return

The transformation of the leadership and workforce of our place contributing to local and regional economic growth is supported by our wider enterprise activities and engagement with business, public sector and the community partnerships and positioning of the University in key strategic locations and developments

Skills for the Region

• Deliver an offer for Apprenticeships that drives up progression into higher and degree level skills, improve social mobility and support productivity as employers recover from the economic downturn of Covid-19.
• 
  Product – New Apprenticeships developing in critical sectors
  
  b. Place – The University has the state of the art facilities to deliver current skills across industry

• Stimulate the growth of Technician level occupations which will meet the needs of priority sectors to the West Midlands such as Health and Social Care, Construction and Digital by offering more level 4/5 provision in these areas to support a vocational revolution of the 2020’s
  
  Product – Higher Technical Education identified and opportunities created for students to progress into jobs and learning
  
  b. Place – The Black Country and West Midlands skills gap reduces by 2030
• Support individuals in accessing higher level skilled provision which will give them the necessary knowledge and skills to increase their employability in key emerging sectors and established industries.
  
  Produce – Students and Graduates are creating opportunities for enterprise and education where new emerging industries are being created.
  
  b. Place – University Science Park brings collaboration and networking to support new and developing enterprise skills.

Public and Community Engagement

The Regional Engagement Sub-strategy is underpinned by the P&CE Strategy in the following ways:

• National leader in public and community engagement in our region as measured through the KEF and HE[1]BCI data returns
• public and community engagement is strategically embedding in our place and aligned with strategic priorities and innovations to achieve long term sustainable impact as measured through the KEF and HE-BCI data returns
• demonstrate the role that P&CE plays in social transformation by embedding impact in all activities clear impact plans in place and reported in KEF returns
• ensure that our alumni are embedded in the community, volunteering their time, skills and employment opportunities to have a direct influence on the opportunities of current and future generations through recruitment, curriculum delivery and development and the student/graduate experience levels and types of engagement increasing year on year.

Lifelong Learning

The Regional Engagement Sub-strategy is underpinned by the Access and Lifelong Learning Strategy in the following ways:

• Continue to be a leader in innovation through lifelong learning through an increased access and lifelong learning offer across our region using the regional learning centre model to expand opportunities for learning for people of all ages measured by reach, participation rates and growth in student numbers from the region.
• achieve alignment between lifelong learning and economic and social transformation in our place successful expansion of learning city, learning town and learning regions initiatives and measured through partnerships with non-formal, informal and formal learning providers and levels of learning activity occurring.
• support the work of the faculties in Public and Community Engagement, skills and knowledge exchange, to enable new community research activities for the University and support the Students and Global Opportunities strategies in in key locations new opportunities and growth linked to positioning in the region.
• develop an integrated access, outreach and lifelong learning approach embedded in our strategies and operational plans that respond to the needs of WP agenda achievement of clear and cohesive suite of offer embedded in best practice from our Uni-Connect work and reported to OFS through the Access Work[1]stream of the APP