Supporting the economic recovery through partnership
By James Ramsbotham, Chief Executive of the North East Chambers of Commerce
With the recovery from global recession still very fragile, it is essential that links between universities and businesses continue to strengthen. For businesses these links act as a catalyst for greater business innovation, provide a broader perspective on the challenges and opportunities industries and individual firms face and deliver our future leaders.
North East universities occupy a central role within our regional economy. The contribution of local and international students and those who choose to work in the region after completing their studies helps shape the North East’s economy and its culture. Clearly our universities also play a pivotal role in training the future workforce through their academic provision and by collaborating closely with businesses.
Teesside University – recently named University of theYear for its engagement with business ¬has capitalised on its digital media and technology expertise to create a thriving cluster of digital and creative businesses in the Tees Valley through the DigitalCity project. The Institute of Digital Innovation (IDI) provides specialist facilities, mentoring and financial support for graduates to make their digital or creative business ideas a reality. By engaging with industry, the IDI can target knowledge and skills gaps identified by employers as well as providing a regional, national and international network to help new businesses form contacts and grow. The other delivery organisation, DigitalCity Business, aims to make the North East the best place for digital media, technology or creative businesses by promoting the benefits of location in the Tees Valley to all enterprises from entrepreneurs to established businesses.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) are also used by Teesside University to work collaboratively with businesses towards achieving specific workplace objectives. This collaboration enables businesses to access university skills and expertise via a graduate. Utility provider Northumbrian Water benefited from a KTP with Teesside to design and implement a single change management process to improve the efficiency of Northumbrian Water’s information services department.
For businesses these links act as a catalyst for greater business innovation, provide a broader perspective on the challenges and opportunities industries and individual firms face and deliver our future leaders.
To meet business requirements, Teesside has developed more flexible Knowledge Exchange Internships (KEI). These programmes provide a route for SMEs to benefit from university expertise in a more flexible package. Teesside has been nominated as a preferred partner of Customer First UK and has supported businesses to achieve the same national standard in customer service excellence through KEI projects.
Teesside’s vision of contributing to the success of the regional economy has been realised through the collaborative DigitalCity and KTP projects. By supporting new businesses, encouraging others to locate in the region and facilitating the dissemination of academic knowledge and expertise among regional employers, Teesside has added positive value to North East economic development.
This commitment to working closely with local business isn’t limited to Teesside. Another great example is Northumbria University’s partnership with Esh Group, a large construction business in County Durham. Esh employees studying at Northumbria deliver seminars to students providing industry perspectives on academic theory. Lecturers work with Esh to shape content in line with the curriculum. Northumbria students also benefit from contact with other Esh staff and those within Esh’s supply chain including interviews to inform student research which can bolster the impact and relevance of student outputs. These opportunities for students to interact with professionals help strengthen the future workforce by countering the common complaint that graduates do not possess sufficient industry knowledge. To my mind, this collaboration demonstrates Northumbria’s dedication to achieving its corporate strategy to strengthen the diversity and economic success of the North East.
Whilst both Teesside and Northumbria demonstrate how universities can contribute to the success of the region, barriers exist to prevent universities occupying a greater role in regional growth. The complexity of university structures make it difficult for businesses to engage with university services, for example, forming university contacts was identified as a barrier in the North East Chambers of Commerce (NECC) skills report (Autumn 2011). By establishing an internal team within the university capable of fielding business enquiries, businesses would find it easier to approach and engage university services. Greater dialogue needs to be established to ensure that universities are providing the skills required by local businesses – Teesside and Northumbria’s successful collaborative projects demonstrate the success of such dialogue.
In July, the Government published the White Paper, Higher Education: Students at the Heart of the System, with bold aims to strengthen our world renowned Higher Education sector. The Paper includes welcome actions including a review of university¬industry collaboration that will inform the future research and innovation strategy. Additionally there were calls for greater partnership working to strengthen the provision of enterprise skills at university level as well as improving careers advisory services through a quality standard. NECC welcomes these moves to review collaboration and the commitment to strengthening employability skills, both of which have been identified by businesses as issues. However, strengthening university¬business connections must be aimed at supporting growth and must not be used as a facade for shifting the burden of funding to businesses.
There is a clear role for the North East’s world¬class universities to work with businesses and improve skill levels and regional growth. Workforce skill levels are a critical contributor to the success of any business, and many within the North East suffer from skills shortages ¬despite the increased levels of unemployment that are a feature of recent economic turmoil. By implementing a few simple reforms to increase the ease of interaction between universities and businesses, successful collaboration such as Teesside and Northumbria Universities’ projects can become the norm.
James Ramsbotham is Chief Executive of the North East Chamber of Commerce, who represent the interests of its 4,500 members that collectively employ a third of the region’s workers.
