Association of Colleges

The Second Prime Minister’s Initiative for International Education – PMI2

Launch of 2009 FE Partnerships Fund Prospectus - CLOSED

The Prime Minister’s Initiative for International Education (PMI2) is the successor strategy to the Prime Minister’s Initiative to Attract More International Students to the UK (PMI1, 1999–2005). Applications are now closed.

The first PMI was successful in achieving its targets.  However a number of changes in relation to both recruitment markets and the global development of Vocational Education and Training (VET) heralded the need for a strategy which would address a wider internationalisation agenda.  PMI2 was launched in April 2006 as a new 5-year strategy which recognises that continued success in the procurement of overseas students will increasingly depend on the reputation and standing of UK education in the international arena, the UK’s contribution to global development and the strength of its international partnerships.

In order to maximise the impact of PMI2 during the remainder of the programme to 2011, the primary focus of PMI2 investment will be on a reduced number of country markets. This proposed development also takes account of the fact that the political and economic landscape in some countries, makes it impossible to achieve the challenging PMI2 goals at the present time.
The Further Education Partnerships Fund (FEPF) is organised into two Measures, one of which is managed by the British Council and the other by AoC.

The PMI2 FE Partnerships Fund (FEPF) - CLOSED

In view of the emphasis placed on strategic partnerships within PMI2, in 2006-07, a ring-fenced fund was created to support Further Education colleges in developing such partnerships with organizations overseas.  The FEPF is organised into two Measures

• Measure 1 (managed by AoC) provides pump-priming for a variety of entrepreneurial international partnership activities undertaken by individual and consortia of colleges in the UK, in collaboration with overseas colleges or other organisations.  These either have short or medium commercial outcomes or result in other types of benefits for the partners, which are consistent with the aims and priorities of PMI2.  In all cases, applicants are required to demonstrate that the activities would be sustained after the PMI2 grant period
   
• Measure 2  (managed by the British Council) ) supports the development of international partnerships with colleges, other VET/HE institutions, sector bodies, employers, government agencies and/or other relevant organizations. Measure 2 objectives concern the contribution of global college partnerships to education development and reform agendas in specific PMI2 priority countries.  Awards under this measure are linked to specific activities arising from government to government/national agreements and are thus focused on developments in designated areas 

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Nigeria/Ghana

Strategic Dialogue : Education and employability, October 2008, Abuja, Nigeria

Context

A key strand of the PMI2 initiative is the strengthening of strategic collaboration at policy and institutional level in priority countries. Following a series of preliminary meetings in Nigeria and a Nigerian delegation visit to the UK in June 2008, the issue identified as the topic for the Policy Dialogue in Nigeria was education and employability and the objectives were as follows:

• Knowledge sharing:  to create a forum for strategic and policy dialogue to increase mutual understanding of priorities and possible cooperation areas
• Towards a common agenda: to identify common agenda, possible cooperation areas and to develop mutually beneficial collaborative projects
• Partnership: to build. strengthen and sustain relationships between the UK and international partners

Education and employability is a topic which closely complements national agendas in both Nigeria and the UK. It is an issue that is being faced simultaneously by governments, education institutions, employers and students across the globe. More specifically, the dialogue addressed the following themes at:

1. Policy level:

• The need for higher level knowledge and skills in the workforce
• The role of FHE in developing the workforce
• Developing ‘soft’ or ‘essential’ skills and the implications for the curriculum
• The role of industry in shaping policy / curriculum and funding education
• Employer expectations – what they want from education systems
• Student expectations: what the student / customer wants and needs 

2. Practical approaches: 

• Delivering flexible work based learning solutions
• How can employers and providers work together to respond to the challenge of employability?
• Employers’ needs – engaging employers in developing learning opportunities
• Equipping working people for new careers and lifelong learning 

3. Enabling frameworks:

• What can be done at policy level to enable this complex issue?
• What are the recognition and accreditation issues that arise? 

Nigeria faces a number of challenges and constraints, and the dialogue addressed how issues such as capacity building, access to Higher Education, cross-border education and quality assurance might be addressed in taking the employability agenda forward.  

The following thematic areas emerged for future consideration for co-operation: functional skills/entrepreneurship; FE/HE progression pathways i.e. Foundation degrees; employer engagement; Quality Assurance; Development of NVQF in Nigeria; TNE/distance learning; Capacity building – teaching of practical learning; curriculum development; leadership & management.

The following sectors are suggested as priorities for partnerships: Telecommunications, Oil & Gas and Media (film, radio,TV).

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Future opportunities to work with Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is currently undergoing change at a pace which unprecedented in its modern history and this includes the reform of its vocational education training systems.
 
At the 2008 AoC conference, Beyond Standards gave a presentation relating to anticipated opportunities for the UK FE sector to workwith the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC)  in Saudi Arabia. 

New Opportunties in Saudi Arabia