When, pandemics allowing, the South Central Institute of Technology (SCIoT) opens its doors in a few months’ time at Bletchley, Reading and Oxford, it will be staffed like no other educational establishment. About 40 to 60 per cent of course content, about 120 to 280 hours per course per year, will be delivered by dual professionals, many of whom will come from our impressive pantheon of project partners. The likes of Microsoft and KPMG will be in the mix, along with the many smaller, specialist local businesses who share the dream of the SCIoT.
What a dual professional is and what she or he does will vary enormously. However, this is not just about popping by for a guest lecture once a year (welcome as that will be) and ticking a box. This is about genuine commitment. A dual professional could be someone working in the background away from the classroom who’s available for guidance, career planning and so on - a mentor who wants to give back for the sense of purpose it brings. Education is all about sharing knowledge, and sometimes that sharing will be done directly to groups of learners or individuals, but it could mean being a positive influence by working on curriculum design, ensuring course content is relevant to business and up-to-date. Other dual professionals may help organise educational events, on and off campus, perhaps sharing the latest research and development their company or department is undertaking. The SCIoT is going to be highly dependent on these people, but that very dependency is our USP. Topics covered in class will gain a whole new perspective by the introduction of real-world examples from corporate colleagues.
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Why get involved?
It’s one thing to talk about the importance of user-friendliness in software design, but quite another to hear from a Microsoft engineer about how that’s actually achieved, and how the product in question will stand or fall by how successful that interface is.
So why would they do it? Why would big people businesses like this agree to lend us their best people and in so doing, deplete their own resource pool of talent for the time they’re with us? Put simply, we will have to ensure there’s something in it for them.
Anyone who’s ever done it knows teaching is a tough trade and stepping into the classroom demands a steep learning curve in numerous skills - communication, negotiation, influencing, engagement, dealing with different audiences, including many with very different mindsets from the corporate one to which they are used. Then again, this is the Bletchley Park way. In place of the crossword puzzlers, linguists and statisticians of the war era will be the teachers, mathematicians and technologists of today, engaging once again in a fruitful cross-pollination of ideas and methods.
The call on dual professionals’ time will also vary. They might teach for two hours on a Wednesday afternoon for three months or five days a week over the same period on full attachment. They will involve students in real-life projects which, if they deliver promising results, they will be able to take back to inform their various businesses.
With this in mind, we’re getting together with City & Guilds to create an educator/coach qualification for dual professionals. It will be at level 3 to 4 and will demonstrate they have real-life experience in curriculum design, presenting, instructing, mentoring, coaching - all contributing to student development. The qualification will have genuine currency outside the SCIoT so can be seen as continuing professional development and will definitely be worth adding to any CV, even those already adorned (as many will be) with master’s or doctorate degrees. The qualification will be flexible so as to be appropriate for people with no experience in education or who are already competent trainers.
Our partners at Cranfield University are already considering offering placements at the SCIoT to their PhD students and it’s something that may well help those people find a place in academia when they’ve qualified. KPMG on the other hand are interested in it as a CSR (corporate social responsibility) opportunity or as a placement for entrants on their graduate scheme.
We are under no illusion this will just be a question of ringing the HR departments of some of the largest and most successful businesses in the world and asking if someone suitable could pop by tomorrow. There will be a lengthy and meticulous process of skills matching and there will need to be support and time for preparation. DPs will need to understand safeguarding and the broader SCIoT culture. The ultimate goal is to build a new pipeline of talent for the technology sector, and those companies which engage in the process will have access to those very young people for whom they are currently crying out.
Just because we at the SCIoT don’t like doing things the easy way, the DPs will need to fit in with our incredibly challenging commitments to diversity. We’ve pledged to recruit learners of whom 50 per cent will be female, 44 per cent BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) and 20 per cent neurodiverse, reflecting the populations we serve. Evidence suggests we learn best from people like us, so it stands to reason the staffing model will meet the same criteria.
Nobody anticipates all these targets being reached in year one but that’s the eventual goal. It will be tough. However, when a kaleidoscopic crew of multifaceted experts arrived at Bletchley Park in 1940, none would have dared dream they would achieve so much in five years. That’s the measure by which we will judge ourselves and the inspiration that will drive us on to our own ambitious goals.
Julia Quinn is people services manager at the South Central Institute of Technology
