Learning Partnerships: The key to skilled workforces

The Leitch report (Dec. 2006) has provided the hard facts and figures that underpin the escalating role of Higher Education in
engaging with employers to raise the skill levels of our workforce. To achieve the targets set for 2020, 38% of the working age
population will be qualified to level 4. Set in the context that 50-65 year olds will account for 60% of the growth in this population, it is clear that this can only be achieved by providing learning opportunities in the workplace. Increasingly the public sector are
developing frameworks setting out qualification requirements for specific levels of responsibility including the skills escalator developed in the NHS and the early years framework responding to Every Child Matters (autumn 2003). In 2005 in response to the
Government’s police reform and modernisation agenda the Home Office required each Police Force to develop a local Initial Police
Learning and development Programme(IPLDP). In 2005 the University of Teesside formed a partnership with Cleveland Police
Force to design and deliver a Foundation Degree in Police Studies. This must be successfully completed by all newly recruited police
officers. In 2006 another police partnership was forged with West Mercia Constabulary and the Foundation Degree in Professional
Policing launched for all new recruits. These programmes are delivered by academic staff and police trainers in a local setting and
include a maximum of 34 weeks classroom learning with the remaining time spent in police tutor units undertaking police practice.