Vocational education in further education colleges must extend beyond the delivery of occupational knowledge and skills, to be effective in preparing students for a changing society and workplace. It must offer students an incentive for thinking creatively about an industry, and broaden their understanding of the career opportunities afforded to them in that industry.

Therefore, further education colleges have a responsibility to include in their curriculum, techniques for helping students develop entrepreneurial skills.

Like universities, further education colleges can also play a vital role in:

• fostering the genesis and growth of new businesses;
• supporting companies with the application of new and existing technologies; and
• working with businesses to develop the skills of their workforce at technical and professional levels.

These college/industry links should be further solidified and energised frequently to enable sustainable capacity and growth in Knowledge and Technology Transfer activities to be achieved. In addition, such activities will undoubtedly underpin the Government's strategy for science, engineering and technology: 'Investing in Innovation', and will encourage stronger collaboration between educational providers and businesses.

National KTT Workshops

NEF are pleased to confirm that they will be delivering a number of one day workshops based on the KTT Profile Builder. These workshops are funded under the LSIS STEM Programme.

This interactive workshop will focus on building an understanding of what KTT is, what benefits can be gained, and how to take KTT further. The workshop will deliver a level of knowledge of KTT to enable workshop participants to pursue active engagement back in their colleges. The workshop will use the seven stages of the KTT Profile Builder tool (created for Further Education by NEF) to show how KTT can be developed and driven effectively in colleges to create additional income streams. The seven stages of the KTT Profile Builder are:

Developing a shared vision – this session will focus on creating a common understanding of Knowledge and Technology Transfer. It will look at how to embed this understanding into college vision, mission and strategy and make KTT complementary to other core activities and specialisms in the college.

An internal capacity review – this session will look at how prepared the college is to take advantage of the opportunities that KTT and Innovation can offer.

Employer engagement – this session will look at the employer engagement process and will show where formal and informal KTT activity is in a college. The session will include examples of good employer engagement – a key ingredient for knowledge transfer.

Review existing knowledge transfer – this session will deal with Knowledge Transfer activities that exist in colleges. It will look at what is currently happening – whether in an informal, not monitored or exploited way – and will show through examples, how to identify real opportunities for colleges to build closer and more productive relationships with employers.

Planning and embedding KTT – this session will reveal the ways in which KTT can be actively planned and embedded in colleges to make it part of the culture.

Measuring the impact and effectiveness of knowledge transfer activities – this session will examine ways in which colleges can measure the impact and effectiveness of Knowledge and Technology Transfer activities.

Ensuring sustainability of knowledge transfer – this session will look at ways to ensure the sustainability of KTT activities.