Employer Engagement: what research do we need?

Launch of the Network for Employability, Enterprise and Work based Learning
You are invited to join us at the launch this new network and to focus on this important topic, current and future research needs.
Keynote Address: David Doherty, Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE)
The Wilson Review (2012) indicated that both the sector and employers needed to focus on fostering mutual relationships.  But what does this mean?
In response to the Wilson Review, and at the request of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), CIHE are creating a National Centre for Universities and Business (NUCB).  What research needs will this new body have?
Programme
11.30   Introductions
12.00   Keynote address and questions
13.15   Lunch and networking
14.00   Roundtable discussions:
How can HEIs be encouraged into trusting partnerships that enable them to differentiate their offer and share territory and contacts? Come with success stories
What works well and what doesn’t?
15.15   Final remarks and conclusions
15.45  Close
If you are currently working on research into university/employee relations and would like to share your work at this event, please let us know on h.e.higson@aston.ac.uk.)
Future events run by the network will focus on short internships and work experience (led by Southampton Solent University) and the effect of Placements on Employability and Academic Performance (led by Aston University), on Enterprise Education and work with SMEs.  We hope in doing this to link with other organisations such as the Higher Education Academy  (HEA), Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) and the Association of Sandwich Education and Training (ASET).
Convenors:
Professor Helen E Higson OBE, Professor of Higher Education Learning and Management, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Aston University
Helen Higson completed her first degree in English Literature from Newnham College, Cambridge University and followed this up with an MA with the Open University and a PhD at Birkbeck College, London University.  She has worked in Higher Education since 1983, first at Southampton University and then at Aston.  She is currently Deputy Vice Chancellor for Aston University, where she leads on international relations, learning and teaching, employability, quality assurance, outreach and Schools Liaison.  Her previous role was as Head of Learning and Teaching at Aston Business School, where she is still remains Professor of Higher Education Learning and Management.  Her research interests are in intercultural and employability competences, and the effects of placement learning.  Amongst interesting projects that she is leading at the moment is a cross-West Midlands graduate internship programme placing graduates into SMEs, a cross-Birmingham scheme to encourage students and graduates to set up their own businesses, and a pan-European EU FP7 project developing innovative practice for young people in cities.
Helen is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of the Association of University Administrators and she was awarded an OBE in the 2011 New Year’s Honours
Dr Richard Blackwell
Richard Blackwell is Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Southampton Solent University.  His role focuses on renewing and converging employability and enterprise strategies, advocacy in HE policy communities, developing local skills partnerships and championing the green agenda.  Richard was a member of the Wilson review team on business-university collaboration, responsible for co-drafting two chapters on graduate recruitment and skills. Previously he worked for the Higher Education Funding Council for England, a forerunner of the Higher Education Academy and the universities of Coventry, Nottingham and Oxford.  He has published widely on HE, was a trustee member of SRHE Council for many years and is a member of the editorial board of SRHE’s policy journal, Higher Education Quarterly.