Putting the Flex back into Flexibility

Mike Osborne

University of Stirling

m.j.osborne@stir.ac.uk

Meanings

• Flexible workforce – adaptive and reactive to a flexible economy and labour market

– agents of change contributing to innovation (Johnson and Lundvall 1991)

• Social, Cultural and Personal Flexibility– Individuals and enterprises should be more entrepreneurial,

competitive, market-oriented

Flexible Learning

• Flexible learning – '…all those situations where learners have some say in how, where

or when learning takes place' (Ellington, 1997)

Home and international

• ‘…the importance of a highly motivated, flexible and well-qualified workforce to the United Kingdom’s international competitiveness’ (DfEE, 1995)

• ‘the need to render traditional education systems more accessible and less rigid so that learners of all ages can embark on reasonably individual study programmes’ (Jouve 2001)

• ‘far reaching change from a supply steered system to a

flexible system steered by changing individual demands’ Swedish Ministry of Education and Science (2001)

In-reach

Widening Participation by In-reach

• In-reach

Adult Access

SummerSchools

Models of in-reach

• Summer Schools (for (mainly)school-pupils)– The modern model First Chance

• Access Courses (for adults)– The historic model Second Chance

• Entrance tests– Aptitude tests, Psychometric testing (e.g. Medicine in UK and Australia)– Examen Spécial d’Entrée à l’Universit (l'ESEU)), and later the Diplôme

d’Accès aux Etudes Universitaires (DAEU)– Prueba de acceso a la universidad para mayores de 25 años

Out-reach

Widening Participation by Out-reach

• Out-reach

SchoolHE links

Community-based

Workplace

Models of out-reach

• School links - awareness raising

• FE/HE links

• Workplace learning• Vertical, Longitudinal, All-embracing,

Integrated (Woodrow and Thomas 2002)

Flexibility

Widening Participation through Flexibility

• FlexibilityVET/HE ODL

Part-Time

Examples of Flexibility

• Modularity/Credit accumulation and transfer schemes(e.g. SCQF)

• Distance Education, Open University Systems, ODL, ICT (e.g. Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, the Dutch Open University, the Finnish Open University, UHI)

• RPL/AP(E)L (e.g. La Validation D’Acquis de la Experience (VAE))

• Independent Study• Bologna to Bergen

Modularity

• Horizontal

• Vertical

SCOTCAT

Or ….

Or even ...

What’s curriculum got to do with it? Key barriers

• Pre-requisite knowledge– Subject specific– Study skills– Assessment skills

• Inflexibility of both HN Design and degree structures and delivery options

And more

• Lack of acceptance of equivalence within credit frameworks

• Grading systems

• (Lack of) ‘gatekeeping’ at entry and exit

Distant Failings

• ICT and Access

• Technological Failings

• Cost

RPL

• Challenges to traditional conceptions of knowledge

• Procedures

Raising Aspirations

• Is it enough?

• The evidence base

Even two swallows don’t ...