Led by the Director of Student Success, Julie Irwin (NTF and PFHEA), the Academic Enhancement team at Bucks New University consists of three academic developers John Knight, Heather Boyd-Savidge and Rebecca Rochon, all of whom are Senior Fellows. The team works to support learning and teaching across the institution, supporting institutional initiatives, working at the strategic level in the development of policy, and also working in a hands-on capacity with staff.
They are currently involved in driving forward institutional engagement with the apprenticeship agenda. This has involved working closely with colleagues, the Apprenticeship Hub and learning technology team to develop approaches and tools to support this challenging process. The team’s varied backgrounds, which include expertise in nursing, employability, curriculum development and learning technologies, have been central to the institution’s ability to adapt rapidly and develop useful working practices to enable staff and employers to develop their understanding of apprenticeships.
The work focuses on supporting the development of staff and employers in the face of sectoral changes that have brought work-based learning to the forefront in higher education. Existing systems did not enable programme teams to respond in an agile manner to emerging apprenticeship standards and adapt to the shifts in culture that these new modes of working entail. The development of the Bucks Work based Learning Framework (Bucks WBLF) to guide staff in the process of apprenticeship curriculum development has been central to their success in driving this change.
Working closely with colleagues as ‘compassionate co-travellers’, the team has been able to use the Bucks WBLF to develop 21 apprenticeship pathways based upon 12 trailblazer standards and establish a community of practice around apprenticeships within the University and beyond. A particular achievement which has been brought about by the development of our framework is our new Academic Professional Apprenticeship programme, which is the first of its kind in the UK and the first to have gained accreditation.