Must do better...

‘Education, education, education.’ This was how former prime minister Tony Blair summed up his priorities for government shortly before he inherited the legacy of 18 years of Conservative government in 1997. Thirteen years on, after two terms of heavy Labour spending, newly installed prime minister David Cameron’s agenda looks starkly different.

In June, the coalition government’s emergency Budget set out a raft of educational reforms which include cutting £449 million from English university budgets, slashing student places by an estimated 6,000 in the next academic year and freezing research grants. Universities are warning of a ‘lost generation’ of would-be students as they are forced to cap numbers and axe the least popular courses.

For housing, this is especially bad news. At an undergraduate level, housing has never been a sexy choice for younger students and courses have always struggled to attract significant numbers.

Around 80 per cent of housing students are mature and already work in the sector. This means the situation is compounded because the employers - housing associations, arm’s-length management organisations and local authorities - that usually foot the bill for these courses are being forced to reduce their own education and training budgets. Furthermore, at postgraduate level with stretched resources some are railing against releasing staff for courses while others are favouring more practical training instead of academic studies.

Lost generation

While there is mounting concern from education providers that housing risks suffering a lost generation of traditionally educated staff, the academics can no longer afford to ignore pressure for them to pull their socks up and provide more popular courses that employers are willing to pay for.

Right now, though, universities and training organisations are, understandably, increasingly concerned that falling demand, coupled with employers’ spending constraints could force them to stop running the courses altogether.

‘The first thing that suffers in times of cuts will be extras - and to many, education is seen as an extra,’ says Paddy Gray, professor of housing at University of Ulster and the new president of the Chartered Institute of Housing.

Geoff Proudlock, lecturer in housing at New College Durham agrees: ‘There is a perception that training budgets are the first to be cut. If organisations stop spending on higher level degrees the sector will lose a lot - where will we be in five years’ time if we don’t develop staff?’

For housing staff, qualifications are invaluable to progressing their careers and maximising the value they can add to their employer. But already universities and colleges are seeing their housing courses fall by the wayside. Inside Housing has learned that several reputable universities are already planning to drop their housing courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Next academic year, Cardiff University will not run its well-respected part-time postgraduate course, Anglia Ruskin University will not offer its undergraduate programme, Southampton Solent University will not run either its undergraduate social housing degree or its postgraduate diploma in housing, and Grimsby Institute of Further & Higher Education is dropping its postgraduate housing course. More are expected to follow.

A sad situation

Roger Keller, head of education at the Chartered Institute of Housing, says that all these cases are sad, but singles out Grimsby as the worst. ‘We only approved the course three years ago,’ he says. ‘Unfortunately, a smallish stock transfer housing association that had originally been putting people through the course had to start making redundancies. As a result of the cuts, they have not had the budget to put staff through the course. Also, Hull Council isn’t sending its staff to be students. You wonder if they don’t have the money or whether they are just not aware of it.’

While colleges and universities might not sell themselves enough, right now money - or a lack thereof - is the greatest problem for most social landlords. A survey commissioned by the CIH at the end of November last year shows that even before the cuts outlined in the coalition government’s emergency Budget in June, training activity had already been affected. Of the 150 human resources professionals from housing associations, ALMOs and local authorities that were surveyed, more than half reported that their training programmes had been affected. Nearly 70 per cent said they expected their training activity to be impacted this year.

By the end of 2009, a quarter of respondents had already reduced their externally provided training, and nearly a fifth (17 per cent) said training budgets had been cut, and, as a result, they were training fewer people.

When the results were published in March Martin Winn, CIH director of professional development, said: ‘There is a real danger that what may start out as temporary or short-term cuts in training and development, could turn into a major underinvestment in skills, spanning an entire generation of housing professionals.’

Today, Mr Winn caveats this ominous warning with good news - of sorts. ‘A third of respondents expected their budgets to be cut, but only 3 per cent said that they expected cuts greater than 10 per cent. This is clearly not good - but neither is it too drastic.’

Additional problems

This is born out in the varying reasons behind the course culling that has already taken place. Bob Keats, course leader at Southampton Solent says the underlying rationale for discontinuing the BA course and the postgraduate course is not directly linked to cuts. ‘The primary reason relates to a cap on student numbers for the university as a whole,’ he says.

With the postgraduate course, the problem was related to employer demand - but not as a result of cuts. ‘The day release programmes for the diploma in housing and the BA (hons) in social housing were becoming increasingly problematic,’ explains Mr Keats. ‘For a number of employers this was a good solution but for an increasing number of employers it was difficult to justify the time out for a small minority of staff to study the professional qualification.’

Cardiff offers a similar story.

Dr Pauline Card, housing course leader at Cardiff University says: ‘Basically, it’s a demand issue. But this has been a problem over the last four years that has culminated now. We used to be able to get between 15 and 20 people each year for a course, but in the past four years it has been a struggle to get 10.

‘Local authorities were our major supporters, but they have been going through transfer processes and that has had an impact. Also, our part-time postgraduate courses have always been supported by our full-time course - but this has suffered from low numbers since the bursaries were taken away in 2008.’

The message is clear: although demand is falling, this is not simply a result of the cuts to either housing budgets or those of universities. Although this is certainly a factor, a much more fundamental problem is that course providers are not meeting the needs of housing employers.

‘We are being told that people do not want to let people out of work for these courses; we are told that housing courses are not fit for purpose,’ admits Mr Proudlock. ‘There is also a general feeling in housing that training is more important than education.’

Fine, but what to offer as an alternative? ‘We are being told there are problems, but not what people would like instead,’ argues Mr Proudlock. ‘I don’t think it is necessarily a question of content - it is more a case of meeting employers’ needs. They want staff to be able to write business reports rather than essays.’

This sentiment is echoed by Mr Keller. ‘Few organisations are saying they can’t afford the fees. Ultimately, employers are asking for better value for money. Often what we hear is that they want less attendance, and more flexibility. Colleges are struggling to respond to their needs.’

As well as not wanting to release staff, there is a growing emphasis on practical skills that will provide tangible business benefits - such as Mr Proudlock’s report writing. As a result, some of the larger housing associations are focusing on building up their in-house training in order to save money on external courses. They include London & Quadrant Group, Circle Anglia, Catalyst Housing Group and Peabody, to name a few.

‘We don’t plan to make any significant changes to our training programmes,’ confirms Hannah Connors, HR performance manager at Peabody. ‘But we are being more creative with our in-house resources - for example, developing and delivering our own training programmes rather than outsourcing.’

Mr Proudlock says that he is already focusing on providing CIH accredited in-house courses for housing associations to meet the demand for more bespoke, practically applicable courses. He believes that despite the fact that enrolment on the housing foundation course that he runs has dropped from 20 students a year ago to around seven or eight, New College Durham is now well-placed to capitalise on the government’s push for students to learn from home rather than university.

Mr Keller is also looking at adapting the CIH course structure to reflect employers’ in-house needs. ‘We are thinking about how we might adjust the course specifications so that we are better at tackling broader issues such as sustainability. But it’s not really about the content. It is more about the structure and access. “Blended learning” is the term of the times.’

On a blender

Blended learning involves students attending classes every six weeks, while doing the majority of the work from home using online resources and virtual classes. This structure is a halfway house between long-distance learning - which can be hard for students to stick to - and part-time learning. Employers must pay for the latter, plus absorb the costs of time taken off work and temporary staff to plug the gap.

Already, universities and colleges are starting to adapt to this change. Despite closing its undergraduate course, Anglia Ruskin University is one of the first universities to offer this type of ‘blended’ course in the form of a foundation degree which it is offering across East Anglia. Similarly, Southampton Solent is working up a new housing course. Its housing team is working with employers to create a co-funded programme of work-based housing education which would be more practical in its emphasis.

‘Student numbers will probably be affected much more over the coming months as employers are forced to make cuts,’ concludes Mr Keller. ‘But, on the other hand, it could be seen as a stimulant for innovation and produce a better education model.

‘We are being forced to promote ourselves better and in a few years’ time I don’t think there will be many full-time or even day release courses - but they will be there still; just online rather than a ‘one-size-fits-all’ model.’

Social housing providers are set to find themselves in the enviable position of being able to dictate how courses should be tailored to their needs. And this is before training budget cuts really start to bite hard. But to safeguard the future of their organisations they should be careful not to replace Mr Blair’s adage ‘education, education, education’ with Mr Cameron’s unspoken motto: ‘cut, cut, cut’.

Additional reporting by Fiona Quirke

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