Training quality through an education partnership

The aim of cultivating closer links between education and business has become the accepted wisdom and practice in the UK over more than the past decade. With delayering resulting in flat organizations, one way to retain the interest and motivation of staff is through encouraging links with the world of education, which is seen as having training value to company employees, pupils and education institute staff. The advantages of such education‐business partnerships are seen to be mutual, and most large and many smaller companies are now entering into them. Indeed, one initiative by a larger company seeks to encourage smaller companies to become involved. It is becoming increasingly common for some evaluation to be undertaken of the effectiveness of such arrangements, but generally on a one‐to‐one basis. What is presented here is an independent evaluation of one large company’s partnership from the perspective of the education side of the equation. Many insights are provided of the strengths and potential weaknesses of such arrangements,with suggestions made as to how improvements may be achieved.