Cogent SSC announces development of process and nuclear industry work-based degrees supported by £2.9m HEFCE fund

Cogent the Sector Skills Council for the science-using Industries is supporting the development and roll-out of modular, work-based foundation degrees for the chemical, polymer, petrochemical, bioscience and nuclear industries.

The £2.9m project piloting bespoke courses for the science-based industries is being led by the University of Hull. It is called ‘Working Higher’ and is a collaboration between Cogent, the Higher Education Academy (HEA) Physical Sciences Centre and the University of Hull. The project fund includes a 50% subsidy of the cost of the provision to the Sector.

Working Higher is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) under their Employer Engagement Fund.

Cogent is responsible for stimulating demand and leading on employer engagement across these strategic industries. It will recruit an Employer Champion for each part of the Sector to ensure a robust employer-led programme.

The Cogent industries – Chemicals, Petrochemicals, Polymers, Nuclear and Bioscience/Pharmaceuticals – make strategic and economic contributions to the UK. They deliver at least 6.5% of UK GVA with a turnover equivalent to the combined annual government spend on health and education.

Although the industries are vital to the UK economy, Cogent has identified higher level skills gaps across the sector in areas such as project management and innovation as well as in higher level technical skills.

The Working Higher programme aims to fill that skills gap across these vital industries. It will support people already working in sciences to develop their talents and reduce shortages of expertise in a Sector where many highly experienced individuals are moving closer to retirement.

While the University of Hull will be the administrative lead and some courses will be delivered at Hull, other key universities across the country, with relevant expertise, will deliver the programme for specific industries (see below).
Dr Brian Murphy, Director of Science and Research at Cogent and Co-Director of Working Higher said: “These industries apply science and engineering to sustain the way we live. Chemicals and Polymers provide us with designer materials. Petrochemicals and Nuclear underpin our energy security while Nuclear provides 80% of our low carbon electricity.

“Pharmaceuticals are a central plank of our health infrastructure; and Bioscience offers a revolution for the sustainable development of most of these industries going forward.

“Skills are a highly important part of this. Without the skilled technicians, scientists and engineers our capacity and capability to be masters of and sustain our way of life will be under threat.

“Working Higher is an intervention to ensure the future skills of the sectors. It is my ambition that this initiative will become a landmark collaboration to drive up higher level skills.”

Professor Tina Overton, Director of the Higher Education Academy Physical Sciences Centre at the University of Hull, said: “We are delighted that Hull has been chosen to lead this project, which will hopefully go some way to relieving the shortage of skills in the science sector.

“These higher level skills are vital to the competitive future of UK science, and the sector is a major employer, so we in higher education must do everything we can to support them.”

University Partners

The universities chosen to deliver Working Higher under the leadership of Hull are:

University of Hull (Petrochemicals)
University of Portsmouth (Nuclear)
University of Central Lancashire (Nuclear)
University of Kent (Bioscience)
London Metropolitan University (Polymers)
Manchester Metropolitan University (Chemicals)
The foundation degrees will consist of a number of core common modules, as well as bespoke elements for individual workers, and will be a mixture of university and work-based learning.