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Business & Community Engagement
Business and Community Engagement (BCE) is a relatively new agenda for JISC developed in response to the strategic aim 5 of the 2007-09 strategy - developing and implementing a programme to support institutions' engagement with the wider community. On this page of our website you'll find links to current information and advice. For further information about any of the items included call the RSC's Information Helpdesk on 0141 585 0022 or contact Theresa Duffy at the RSC.
- The JISC Business & Community Engagement Programme
- JISC Advance support for BCE
- JISC funded Programmes & Projects
- SFC funded Programmes and Projects
- Other funded Programmes and Projects
The JISC Business & Community Engagement Programme
The BCE programme is designed to support institutions in their strategic management of relationships with commercial, public sector (including charities and trusts), cultural, social and civic organisations, in order to deliver services which benefit the economy and society. Through the BCE programme, JISC aims to enhance institutions' efficiency, effectiveness and opportunities in BCE activities and improve access to institutions' knowledge and expertise for business and community organisations. Business and Community Engagement encompasses four institutional strategic areas:
- knowledge exchange
- employer engagement
- public engagement
- lifelong learning
more details of the JISC BCE Programme .....
JISC Business and Community Engagement blog site
JISC Advance support for BCE
JISC Advance are actively engaged in projects addressing BCE issues and provide free and impartial guidance through their range of services. These include:
JISC infoNet
Embedding BCE through enhanced business process and internal engagement
Evidence from the JISC BCE User Needs, CRM and IPR studies has shown that institutions need help in understanding how to achieve alignment and integration of different processes, systems and operations in support of the developing BCE capability and infrastructure, especially within the information, administration and IT services.
www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/bce/embedding-bce
InfoKit & BCE: Diagnostic & Self Evaluation Workbook
The output from the Embedding BCE project is an infoKit which covers the main drivers, purposes, processes, perspectives and issues around business and community engagement (BCE), as well as providing a methodology for reviewing BCE activities internal to an organisation. There is a workbook available to download which is a diagnostic tool designed to help educational establishments to review and evaluate the extent to which BCE and strategy is embedded within the mainstream activities of the institution. Completion of the workbook aims to help institutions to diagnose the things they are doing well and where they can improve. It will hopefully stimulate productive discussion and debate leading to new ideas and agreed change and improvement actions.
www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/bce/embedding-bce
JISC Legal
Legal Guidance for ICT Use in Education, Research and External Engagement
Business and Community engagement is all about further and higher education institutions making their knowledge and expertise available to the business and wider social communities. A wide range of publications, briefings and information on developments in legislation are available from the JISClegal website: www.jisclegal.ac.uk/Themes/ExternalEngagement.aspx
JISClegal media is available on JISC BCE YouTube Channel:
www.youtube.com/user/JISCBCE
JISC TechDis
Support for Employer Engagement
JISC TechDis is the leading educational advisory service, in the fields of accessibility and inclusion. You will find a treasure trove of resources available for practitioners delivering learning within work-related learning, work-based learning or BCE contexts for use with a wide variety of students.
JISC TechDis support for Employer Engagement.
Acumen
As part of the JISC Business and Community Engagement programme, JISC TechDis has developed Acumen - an online resource, designed to support colleges, universities and other learning providers in their work with business. Acumen has been created to provide you with resources, tools and case studies designed to add value to your work with small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
Visit the Acumen website.
JISC funded Programmes & Projects
To give a flavour of the types of programmes and projects underway in 2010 we're highlighting a few of particular interest here. To view the full range go to www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/topics/bce.aspx
OPEN Biz - Open Programme Engaging with Businesses
The Open Programme Engaging with Businesses - or OPEN Biz - will pilot the use of an online programme to support Scottish Universities' engagement with the wider community - namely businesses, social enterprises, charities and business advisors.
Led by the University of Edinburgh and Interface, the pilot project will focus on the west of Scotland, working with key University partners - The University of Strathclyde, The University of the West of Scotland, Glasgow Caledonian University and The University of Glasgow and Open Knowledge Foundation.
More information ......
OPEN Biz blog
LEEP - Learning from Employer Engagement Programmes
This project deals with the study and synthesis for five Business and Community Engagement pilot projects running in parallel. The project will draw on the experiences of Coventry University in partnership with KSA to spearhead employer engagement in HE and FE.
more information .....
CRIB - Collaborative Research in Business
This project supports management and business professionals in university departments and related organisations who are the essential links between research and commerce. CRIB focuses on their requirements, and demonstrates how a Virtual Research Environment can be extended to include the management of research and practice with tools enabling more effective collaboration, sharing of information and accelerating progress through the research lifecycle.
more information ....
Customer Relation Management system for Universities (CRM4UNI)
CRM4UNI is creating customised SugarCRM tools and advice for use by Higher Education institutions. The aim is to create a framework for managing relationships with other organisations. This will allow any HE or FE institution to model its own business processes onto an open standard CRM system which would in turn yield analytic data for the purpose of creating customised workforce development offerings.
more information .....
Customer/Partner Relationship Management: Processes & Systems to Maximise Value
This project is developing an open source self-analysis toolkit. It aims to support a wider UK agenda around how HEIs engage with external organisations for their mutual benefit.
more information ....
Scottish Funding Council funded Programmes and Projects
E-Skills Placement Programme
Led by Napier University, this project has been created in response to employers across the IT sector calling for improved employability skills in graduates. Over the next three years e-skills UK, Edinburgh Napier University and ScotlandIS will work with students and employers across Scotland to create 750 work-based learning placements up to a year in length.
more information ....
Strategic Priority Investments in Research and Innovation Translation (SPIRIT)
Ten projects commenced in May 2010 with SFC funding for three years over the period 2009-12. Projects include:
- Industry SUPA People Innovation Research Exchange (INSPIRE)
- Scottish Energy Research Academy (SERA)
- Novel and collaborative approaches to Knowledge Exchange in translational imaging
- Bio-industry, Skills, Knowledge and People Exchange (BioSKAPE)
- Moving targets: new models for new media audiences
Other funded Programmes and Projects
SHEEN - Scottish Higher Education Employability Network
The Scottish Higher Education Employability Network (SHEEN) hosts a site for employability resources on the web. The information on this site is primarily aimed at individuals who are interested in or have a responsibility for addressing employability in the curriculum. Using Netvibes, the site pulls in a range of content relating to employability in higher education, including dynamically updated information from social media sites, bookmarked web pages, publications and blogs.
more information .....
The STEEL project
The STEEL project (Sharing Technology Enhanced Employability Learning) was a project funded by the Higher Education Academy. The aim was to produce a synthesis of evidence-based research in order to inform decision-making by practitioners in the appropriate use of technology enhanced learning for employability and employee learning in higher and further education. The project started in January 2010 and ran until August 2010. A blog followed the process and activities.
more information ...