Lead Contact: Sandra Kingston, sandra.kingston@nottingham.ac.uk

JISC Programme: Distributed e-Learning programme

Lead Institution and Partners: University of Nottingham (L), Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham Passport, Ufi/learndirect (East Midlands), Nottingham LEA FE institutions, Connexions Nottinghamshire, Local employers

This case study illustrates...

Lessons Learned

What are the lessons learned from the project?

We found education staff easier than representatives of employers to engage in this work. Difficulties with engaging employers arose through changes of personnel and competing internal agendas. We found that we needed to allow more time to build relationships and to obtain buy-in at a senior level, not relying on an excellent relationship with an individual employee, since their role could change at very short notice. It has been useful to identify influential intermediaries to facilitate collaborations: the Nottingham LA Passport team has facilitated work with FE colleges very helpfully. Scheduled discussions with regional organisations, including the RDA, looked promising in terms of opening up greater access to employer partnerships in future but failed to come to fruition. We expect to pursue these leads again through the work of the LLN and as part of future project work; however our assessment of timescales and resources required will be affected by our experience in this project.

We became aware of the need for careful consideration of location for meetings. While we felt it was important to hold major project meetings, including meetings of the Advisory Board, at the University of Nottingham, we found it was valuable for key staff to visit other locations for particular purposes. University of Nottingham development staff worked on site at both NTU and local FE colleges, which allowed them to work directly alongside local staff and develop greater insight into the local technology and its use. Similarly, we found it easier to engage pedagogic staff by holding meetings in their institutions rather than expecting them to visit the University. Conversely, we found that for certain groups of staff the offer of a meeting room and hospitality made meetings easier to arrange as there is so much pressure on their local arrangements. For cross-institutional meetings of technical staff the opportunity to get out of their local environment for meetings allowed them to engage more readily with discussions without fear of interruption. We will carry these lessons forward into future collaborative project work.