Tagged / business

BU Research Conference: Powerful Partnerships – Wednesday 26 June

A lightbulb created by interlocking pieces of stringThere’s still time to book your place for the BU Research Conference, which takes place on Wednesday (26 June) in the Fusion Building.

The theme for this year’s conference is powerful partnerships, exploring how working with others can enhance your research.

Speakers include Isabella Pereira, Head of the Institute for Community Studies, and a panel of BU academics sharing their experiences of working with partners regionally, nationally and internationally.

You’ll also have chance to take part in practical workshops covering topics including building international partnerships, co-creating research, and working with business.

The conference runs from 9.30am – 1pm and will be followed by a networking lunch to spark further conversations and collaborations.

We’re hoping it will be an inspiring and informative day, and we’d love to see you there.

Find out more and book your place via Eventbrite

Understanding the determinants of employing apprentices: From an economic perspective

Lei Xu has written a piece on the timely topic of apprenticeships:

Motivation

Apprenticeship is high on the political agenda and the government has set a target of 3 million apprenticeship starts by 2020.[1] Apprenticeships were intended to train young workers with the right set of skills and match them with suitable employers. However, new starts were much lower than expected partly because of the apprenticeship levy and partly because of Covid.[2] Since the introduction of the levy fund in 2017, much of the fund has gone unused , suggesting some employers are not well prepared to provide apprenticeships.[3] Prior to the levy, many apprentices were converted from existing employees in firms. This went against the original objective of apprenticeships which was to train young unskilled workers. In this context, this analysis aims to understand the determinants of employing apprentices from an economic perspective. Information is collected primarily from semi-structured interviews with training-related managers and providers, using a detailed interview schedule.

The merit of apprenticeships has been extensively discussed in qualitative research, such as steeping in company values, and reducing labour turnover. In a survey conducted by Mieschbuehler et al (2015), 51% of employers responded that they had difficulty recruiting the skills they needed.[4] Based on the interviews, it is commonly accepted among providers that apprenticeships are a better way of attracting and screening workers to fit with employers and embed them in a firm’s culture.

The cost of employing and training apprenticeships has seen as one of the main obstacles to boost the number of apprenticeships.  Although generous subsidies could increase the supply of apprenticeships, the cost-effectiveness of funding would decrease. Our interviews also showed that some firms, especially larger firms, are not sensitive to the direct costs, such as wages and benefits, whilst smaller companies are more cost sensitive. In general, they argue that the cost might not be the priority because the wage of an apprentice is not expensive and some providers have also argued that the wage is too low to attract good candidates.

This analysis highlights the importance of managerial practices on the decision of taking on apprentices. Apprenticeships are operated by firms and hence need to align with firms’ business plans and the decision of taking on apprentices might be complex due to the complex structure in an organisation. In addition, call center recruiting Utah and training apprentices is a complex activity, involving significant inputs of senior members, especially the team leaders who provide personal guidance for apprentices. A hypothesis is that managers’ ability and motivation is vital in employing apprentices and the success of apprenticeships. Apprenticeships are unlikely to be successful if the managers are not in place to arrange suitable work for apprentices. A successful scheme encouraging employers to recruit apprentices depends on thoughtful consultation with employers.

This analysis explains the observations from the interviews that affect employers recruiting apprentices.

 

Observations from the interviews:

First of all, we observed that lots of apprentices are recruited by apprenticeship providers rather than employers via publishing job adverts on the government’s website, which is strange since apprentices are be employed by employers rather than the providers. Some hidden costs might be associated with employing apprentices. The responses suggest that providers have largely engaged in recruiting and screening apprentices as an additional service of the business. Some providers believe that the additional service provided for employers is value-added, additional to the training. From this perspective, they are providing as much value as they could to retain their clients. The providers will help employers to recruit, screen, and select the most suitable candidates and support the managers and apprentices throughout the training until they complete the training and become independent workers. The providers have argued that they have spent time on talking about procedures and guidance with employers. The evidence suggests that employing apprentices may put both pecuniary and non-pecuniary burdens on employers. The employers are specialised in their own businesses rather than recruiting and training apprentices, especially small firms which normally don’t have the capacity to deal with extra administrative duties. Some employers may have concerns about retaining apprentices after the training. In addition, due to limited managerial resources, the quality of apprenticeship is hard to maintain. The responses suggest that the retention rate is key for the firms hiring apprentices.

The decision of taking on apprenticeships might be complex and often involves different parties, in the same way as every business decision made. The majority of interviewers argue that line managers are vital to the success of apprenticeships. Not all line managers have committed to the idea of training apprentices, resulting in undesirable training outcomes. Since the decision of taking on apprentices might be a collective decision or may come from more senior managers, line managers may not be motivated to take on apprentices. However, line managers need to provide necessary guidance and distribute work to apprentices and are required to provide encouragement at a personal level sometimes. Contrary to experienced colleagues, training apprentices may substantially increase the workload as line managers need to provide guidance to the apprentices and communicate with providers and assessors.

At present, most vacancies are advertised on the website and the virtual platform may result in low efficiency of matching, especially when managers have a  lack of information on job seekers.[5] Employers often screen workers based on their historical performance on relevant tasks. In the absence of prior experience, it is hard to ascertain candidates’ genuine productivity. Good matches between employers and candidates also requires substantial knowledge of both the firms and young workers. Outsourcing agencies have emerged to help inexperienced candidates with high productivity to match with employers. Stanton and Thomas (2016) argue that workers affiliated with an outsourcing agency have a higher probability of finding a job and receiving a higher starting wage as well.[6]

There is divided opinion on whether it is hard to convince employers. It takes more effort to persuade line managers to take on apprentices when they would rather work with existing employees, suggesting the cost of running apprenticeships is associated with social cognition. Apprentices concentrate on several sectors where there is a long tradition of employing apprentices. Some providers argue that a company whose CEO was formerly an apprentice is more likely to accept apprentices . Most of the providers argue they will explain the procedures and the benefits of apprenticeships to employers and discuss with employers how to develop a plan for apprenticeships. On the other hand, some providers argue that the information is not enough for candidates to understand the nature of the job and the required skills, especially when the employer’s job description is vague. Some firms tend to make the job adverts quite generic as they may want more potential candidates to apply. But it may create issues for apprentices who usually are new to the job, potentially resulting in a matching problem.

 

Suggestions and implications

The government’s aim to increase apprenticeships might not be successful without comprehensive consulting with firms. Firms may need to adjust their business models to adapt to apprentices. Successful apprenticeships require collective efforts, especially the support from line managers.

The costs of running apprenticeships are often regarded as one of the most important factors affecting the decision of taking on apprentices. However, this analysis notices that some large firms are not sensitive to the direct costs, contrary to firms with smaller scale. In general, they argue that the cost might not be the most important reason for not employing apprentices and some providers argue that the wage is too low to attract good candidates. Moreover, one of the social costs of running apprenticeships is due to the low social recognition. This explains why the most successful firms operating apprenticeships often have senior managers who understand and share the value of apprenticeships.

Some managers might be reluctant to take on apprentices as there is no incentive. Given that managers are one of the fundamental factors of a successful apprenticeship, the government should not only provide financial aids to support employers to train more apprentices but also introduce the genuine benefits of apprenticeships, especially to managers, by disseminating research findings and communicating with them openly. The objective is to make employers and managers fully understand how to operate apprenticeships and what benefits apprentices could bring to the team. Firms should develop a suitable plan to allow apprentices to grow and keep the apprentices busy, investing time and effort in apprentices and help apprentices to make progress throughout their career.

In addition, the research also has some interesting observations. Generally, no issue on the flexibility of adjusting programs has been raised. But it is worth noting that some firms may have special needs as different businesses tend to have different models. Both digital skills and higher levels of apprenticeship have attracted more attention. Given the small number of interviews carried out for this report, it is worth noting that the discussions are indicative rather than definitive for all employers.

[1] House of Commons, Briefing paper CBP 03052.

[2] From April 2017, all UK employers of pay bill over £3 million need to pay the levy.

[3] The Open University. 2018. The apprenticeship levy: one year on.

[4] Mieschbuehler, R., Hooley, T. and Neary, S., 2015. Employers’ experience of Higher Apprenticeships: benefits and barriers.

[5] https://www.gov.uk/apply-apprenticeship

[6] Stanton, C.T. and Thomas, C., 2016. Landing the first job: The value of intermediaries in online hiring. The Review of Economic Studies83(2), pp.810-854.

New Publication: Businesses and mobile social media capability

Bournemouth University’s, Dr Elvira Bolat and Dr Kaouther Kooli, and Professor Len Tiu Wright from University of Huddersfield have published new article in Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing.

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“The study is amongst the first to provide insights into B2B firms’ practices of using mobile social media. This paper found that marketing and advertising firms use mobile social media for branding, sensing market, managing relationships and developing content. Mobile social media is treated by businesses as a strategic firm-specific capability that drives firms’ competitiveness, where imitation of such capability by competitors is limited because mobile social media skills are specific to individuals within organisations and mobile social media routines are manifested as a result of firm-specific mobile social media skills’ interactions.”

Access full article by clicking on the image below.

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Engaging the social sciences with business

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A recent report published by the ESRC shows that social scientists are becoming increasingly engaged through their research. This is testament to how the knowledge exchange agenda has become embedded and been embraced. That said, what disciplines are involved varies, as does who they are engaging with. It is also striking, if not entirely unsurprising, that social scientists are more likely to engage with charitable and public sector organisations (49%) than with businesses (30%).

There are, of course, many reasons for this. However, it is important to emphasise that this is not for a lack of relevant insight! Indeed, this raises an important question about how the social sciences can and should engage with businesses to realise the impact of research-based insights. If opportunities for businesses engagement are in the eye of the beholder, then there is a need to make social scientists more aware about the possibilities. If we cannot identify our own value, we cannot expect others to see it.

Engaging with business is not the privileged domain of engineering and the sciences. The challenge, however, is ensuring that the value of the social sciences is not overlooked by businesses, or worse goes unrecognised. The onus, therefore, is on social scientists to demonstrate the relevance of their research to business,  just as they have to charitable and public sector organisations. This is about translation, making research insights accessible where the findings are non-obvious and engaging with businesses to co-produce new knowledge.

Click here to find out more about this research and the academics involved in this area of work.

UK Universities focus on delivery and spur economic growth

Innovate 2011v4
Universities earn over £4bn working with the wider world,  through knowledge exchange between UK universities and the public, private and third sectors.   The annual Higher Education, Business and Community Interaction (HE-BCI) Survey is the most accurate picture of UK higher education institutions’ commercial relationships.
UK performance is world leading. Comparisons demonstrate that the return on investment from commercialisation of research (sale of equity) is higher in the UK than in the USA or Japan and engagement with industry (proportion of research income) is at similar levels either side of the Atlantic.

 

Bridging Business and Research

Companies do not necessarily have the facilities, financial resources or human capital to run their research projects as they would like to. Thanks to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), it is now possible for SMEs or other Logo_Marie-Curiecompanies to collaborate with academic research organisations, have access to their equipment, and integrate some of their highly skilled researchers within the research projects of the firm.

Transferring cutting-edge science and technology from creative academic groups to SMEs is a key element of successful innovation.

The European Commission knows that well-trained, entrepreneurial-minded researchers, who can move between academic and other settings, are essential to this successful collaboration. This is why the MSCA are promoting Business-Academic collaborations that focus on giving researchers adequate skills and opportunities to contribute to SME and other business growth.

In order to give more practical information on how to get involved in these actions, and to present the latest business opportunities under Horizon 2020, the MSCA have launched a promotional campaign across Europe.

The next event in the UK is in Cardiff on Friday, from 12:00 – 18:00 (sorry, no rugby in Cardiff that weekend). If you wish to attend, please check the programme and register. If you cannot make this date, please refer to the events schedule for more events across Europe.

 

BU Business Engagement Network – LinkedIn

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Are you keen to develop relationships with businesses? Why not join the new BU Business Engagement Network on LinkedIn. It’s growing quickly. Not only is it a great way to find out about what is happening within the area of business engagement and knowledge exchange, its a useful method to use to develop your own  networks – locally, regionally and internationally (often just using your own smartphone or tablet whilst on the move).

Click here to join : BU Business Engagement Network

(You will need to be user of LinkedIn)

Call now open ! Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF): money available to support your business engagement and knowledge exchange ideas.

HEFCE provide funding for knowledge exchange (Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF)) to support and develop a broad range of knowledge-based interactions between universities and colleges and the wider world, which result in economic and social benefit to the UK. The current round of funding is referred to as HEIF-5 and runs until 31st July 2015.

BU has a proven track record with this funding stream and our success continues. Currently there are 13 live projects funded from HEIF-5, including VFX Hub, BUDI and the Cyber Security Unit. Interim funding has been made available to run from 1 August 2015 to 31 July 2016. This is known as HEIF 5+1.

The call is now open. Colleagues are invited  to bid for funds to run new projects with funding starting 1 August 2015 and ending 31 July 2016.

Deadlines are tight with the deadline for proposals being Friday 3 July 2015.  (Timetable for the call.)

These projects will need to reflect our interim strategy sent to HEFCE:

“BU will continue to invest in innovation themes with a strong focus on network creation, with a particular focus on digital and creative industries, health and wellbeing, and regional development. The additional year of funding will enable BU to continue to develop our existing area in addition to investment to develop new innovations. This will allow BU to create innovations in areas such as e-health, whilst developing closer links with regional initiatives to enhance local development opportunities, working with the Dorset LEP and other local organisations. We will also consider the use of HEIF funds to invest in effective mechanisms for engaging with business/industry. Our core strategy of investing in sector-specific themes with a strong focus on network creation remains; what has changed in light of emerging opportunities is the nature of the themes in which we will invest and the mechanisms through which we will engage with the region.”

For more information please click here.

Make sure you read the information listed in the useful documents section including:

HEIF Institutional Strategy

HEIF FAQs

HEIF Application Form

£7m funding competition open for registration

 

Wave Energy Scotland (WES) is launching four new SBRI funding competitions with up to £7m funding available.

The aim of this funding competition is the development of new innovative energy conversion solutions that are applicable to the wave energy sector. More information on this funding opportunity.

Competition Briefing event, 31 March 2015.

This event is an excellent opportunity for you to receive first hand information about the competition – its scope, application process, key dates etc. More information on the briefing event.

Creative and Digital Business Briefings are out now!

The March edition of the  monthly creative business briefing for the UK’s creative industries is now live!

This is a monthly publication that provides a digest of useful information about funding, financing, support and events to assist creative entrepreneurs with their innovation and growth agendas. This month’s edition offers edited highlights of a number of public funding programmes from leading organisations supporting our sector including: Innovate UK, IC tomorrow, Nesta, British Film Institute, Creative England, Creative Scotland & more.

Now in it’s sixth month of publication, feedback from you the community continues to inform us that this is a valued resource.

Please click here for the digital business briefing.

SW businesses can benefit from £5k of funding from Creative England

Creative England is offering creative digital businesses in the South West the chance to apply for a third round of Business Strategy and Innovation Vouchers.

The scheme provides companies with £1,000 – £5,000 to subsidise much of the cost of procuring expert third party services in order to aid growth.

Funded by the Creative Industries iNet programme through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Regional Growth Fund (RGF), the initiative focuses strongly on digital innovation and business strategy.

The Creative England Innovation Programme helps creative companies build and sell innovative products and services more successfully. This work is delivered through structured projects – which include seed investment, mentoring, marketing, and business support, planning and strategy. These projects help companies jump over business barriers to grow more quickly and profitably.

In order to apply to this round, businesses must be based in Bristol, Bath, Dorset, Devon, Wiltshire, Somerset or Gloucestershire, and be able to provide a total equalling 30% of the requested amount in match funding.

The voucher scheme is part of a wider £314k programme of support through the Creative England Innovation Programme.

Applications for the Voucher Scheme close on February 27th, 2015. For more information please read the guidelines below. Companies can apply directly here.

 

£5,000 of business funding available – Innovation Vouchers

Are you working with business?

Innovation Vouchers are open to all kinds of small businesses.    Businesses  can claim up to £5,000 towards the cost of expert advice if they classify as a start-up, micro or  SME . The funding encourages SMEs and start-ups to seek out fresh knowledge that can help their business to grow and develop. This could include advice on an innovative idea, learning more about using design within the  business or how to make the most of intellectual property.

Business challenge

Innovation Vouchers  have in the past been available only in specific technology areas. Now a business can apply if  they  just meet these simple tests:

• you need specialist help to meet a business challenge

• it’s the first time you have worked with the university (a great first rung on the ladder before a KTP  perhaps?)

You can apply at any time with around 100 vouchers being awarded every 3 months – for 2015 this is April and July. 

For more information, visit the website  Innovation Vouchers .

Innovation Vouchers are funded by Innovate UK. A short guide to  to help make clear what an assessor for Innovate UK competitions is looking for has been produced. All of the Innovate UK funding programmes follow a similar pattern and you should bear in mind that the questions are designed to help rather than trip you up. It is important that you answer the questions asked and cover all aspects the Guidance for Applicants describes.

 

 

 

 

BU exhibits at Growth Plan Launch Events

The events were organised  by Christchurch and East Dorset County Councils to enable the Dorset business community  to hear comments from public and private strategists and investors in Dorset’s economy. Run throughout the month of November a number of staff across the university attended and took part in discussions and round table events in addition to exhibiting alongside partners such as The Dorset Growth Hub and The Dorset LEP.

Guest speakers included : Anna Rosier, Managing Director of Organix  – very much a local business success story starting in Christchurch 16 years ago (now based in Bournemouth).  Gordon Page, Chair of Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership provided an update on the Dorset LEP growth deal and its progression so far.  Apart from highlighting the million pounds worth of investment that the LEP has so far secured from central government for the improvement of the Dorset economy, Mr Page also highlighted the need for strong and united partnerships across Dorset in order to secure more funding. He also emphasised the importance of partnership between both public and private sectors in Dorset as an essential element to Dorset’s economic growth and success.

Councillor Claire Bath, Portfolio Holder for Economy for Christchurch and Councillor Simon Tong, lead member for the Economy Growth Plan, also presented at the events. Both Councillors stressed the need for feedback from the Dorset business and general community, so that the long term benefits of the growth investments can be both communicated and realised.

Thank you  to Jayne Codling (R&KEO), Claire Main (School of Tourism), Mark Painter (CfE and Business School) , David Parker, Lucy Rossiter (Cyber Security), Norman Stock (SciTech) and Liam Toms (Media School) who took the opportuntity to network with a number of local businesses and highlight how Bournemouth University can support the “Going for Growth” vision.

 

Call for papers – International Conference on Innovation Through Knowledge Transfer 2015

InnovationKT15 will be of interest to all knowledge professionals – those academics, business people, managers and researchers working within innovation, enterprise, knowledge transfer, exchange and sharing. This event is running from 15 to 17 April 2015 at Staffordshire University.  For submission dates please click here for more information.

Featuring world-class speakers, oral presentation sessions and interactive workshops, the InnovationKT 2015 conference will provide an excellent opportunity to publish a paper in journal and book form, and at the same time disseminate, share and discuss the impact of university-business and business-business interactions. Papers on relevant topics are invited to be evaluated for the conference under peer-review and if accepted, published in the proceedings.

Click here to view past events and find out more.   

 

 

 

 

 

peer-review and if accepted, published in the proceedings.

 

 

 

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Conference Scope

 

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InnovationKT15 covers the following topics (although this list is not intended to

 

be exhaustive) :

 

 

 

– Case studies of successful university-business

 

– Examples of best practice in respect of innovation and knowledge transfer from

 

practitioners

 

– Innovative innovation and knowledge transfer mechanisms

 

– The outcomes and results of university-business and business-business projects

 

– Management of projects and development of applicable policy

 

 

 

Applicable knowledge transfer mechanisms and paradigms include, but are not

 

limited to:

 

 

 

– The UK Technology Strategy Board (TSB) Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP)

 

product

 

– Spin-out companies

 

– Incubators and entrepreneur schemes

 

– University-industry contracts and consultancy

 

– Licensing of university-originated intellectual property

 

– Other modes of knowledge transfer and technology transfer, e.g. work-based

 

learning projects

 

– The knowledge transfer, knowledge origination and knowledge exchange process

 

 

 

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Invited Sessions

 

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An invited session consists of a presentation session of 6 to 12 or more papers on a

 

specific conference topic, organised as half or full day mini-conference. We invite senior

 

specialists who have an interest in a specific conference topic to take responsibility for

 

an invited session, gathering papers from a range of research expertise around the world.

 

If you would like to arrange an Invited Session please contact: admin@kesinternational.org

 

 

 

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Dates & Deadlines

 

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General Track

 

 

 

Submission of Papers: 19 Jan 2015

 

Notification of Acceptance: 16 Feb 2015

 

Upload of Files for Programme / Proceedings: 16 March 2015

 

 

 

Early Registration Deadline: 1 March 2015

 

 

 

All deadlines are provisional and subject to change.

 

 

 

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Location

 

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The collaboration between Staffordshire University and UK partners includes

 

excellent relationships with local and national companies as well as 17 further education

 

colleges plus charitable organisations such as the Institute for Children, Youth and Mission

 

and Oasis College.

 

 

 

Staffordshire is world renowned for its pottery and there are many beautiful attractions around

 

the area where you can immerse yourself in British culture. Take a tour around various pottery

 

museums, galleries and attractions, maybe visit Stoke Minster and round it off with a nice cup

 

of English tea at Gladstone Tea Room overlooking their famous cobbled courtyard!

 

 

 

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Further information

 

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For general enquiries email us at: contact@innovationkt.org. Please do not reply to

 

this email as the account is not monitored. You can also follow  @IKT_Talk and @KESIntl on

 

Twitter for updates. All rights reserved by KES international.

 

 

 

This email was sent to ‘jcodling@bournemouth.ac.uk’ from KES International.

 

If you wish to stop receiving email from us, you can simply remove yourself by visiting:

 

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In case of problems, contact: admin@kesinternational.org

 

 

 

 

BU sponsors Dorset Business Award for Entrepreneur of the Year 2012

Bournemouth University proudly sponsored the Entrepreneur of the Year award for another year. The application and judging process culminated in an awards ceremony and Gala Dinner for 530+ guests at the Lighthouse in Poole on 29th November, hosted by actress and impressionist Debra Stephenson.

The evening had a Bond theme to celebrate the ‘007th’ year that the Dorset Chamber of Commerce & Industry has organised the awards and the 50th anniversary of the James Bond character.

The Entrepreneur of the Year category attracted one of the highest number of entries. The applicants were diverse and covered a broad and varied range of businesses. The judging panel had the enjoyable, yet extremely challenging, task of narrowing the list down to just three finalists.

The judges were Professor Roger Palmer the Dean of the Business School, Professor Dean Patton the Head of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Mark Painter the Business Development Manager for the Business School.  The three deserving finalists were Phil Whitehurst of Active Research, Duncan Cook of 3 Sided Cube and Paul Woods of Astute. Paul Woods was the eventual worthy winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year award. 

Mark, Roger and Dean were joined at the Gala Dinner by Tim Lee, a non-Executive Director of BU, the three finalists and their guests.

More information regarding the Dorset Business Awards can be found at www.dorsetbusinessawards.co.uk

Business Law Seminars

You are warmly invited to attend a series of business law seminars being organised by a group of academics in the Department of Law researching in Business Regulation & Institutions, Trade & Entrepreneurship (cBRITE), who will be working closely with the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth:

Stephen Copp “The codification of directors’ duties: raising or lowering standards?” 11.00 – 12.00pm Wednesday 5th December 2012 in PG142

Alison Cronin “White Collar Crime – Why the light touch?  The case for a robust criminal law to reinforce ethical conduct in the commercial world” 1.00 – 2.00pm Wednesday 12th December 2012 in PG146

Sarah McKeown “A Common European Sales Law: Facilitating Cross-Border Trade for SMEs” 11.00 – 12.00pm Wednesday 19th December 2012 in PG142

For further details contact Dr Stephen Copp, Associate Professor, Department of Law, The Business School at scopp@bournemouth.ac.uk