Last year the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) launched its vision of how UK business will develop and shape over the next decade. The report, which mapped key trends and messages from CBI members, predicted a growing trend towards talent management, training linked to businesses' corporate goals and, furthermore, an increased inter-dependence and collaboration between businesses and education institutions.
These key themes have long been at the heart of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) - a government funded programme which supports innovative, collaborative partnerships to drive economic growth. Since it began in 1975, KTP has worked with well over 5,000 organisations - businesses that recognised they could benefit from embedding academic knowledge into their company to improve their competitiveness and those businesses that recognised that changes in workforce management and training for innovation are the future business model to build.
The practicalities of KTP are simple enough: a collaborative project is set up between an academic base and a business in order to deliver a defined improvement in the business performance of the company. It might be that a food and drink company has a marketing project to launch a new brand. An IT company may wish to implement a HR function. Or perhaps a recruitment firm wants to cut its overheads. The idea behind KTP is to help support UK businesses compete in a global marketplace - which means individual challenges for individual businesses.
KTP projects vary in length from 10-40 weeks, or one to three years, depending on the needs of the project. At the outset, the business must put together a case explaining what the problem is, what knowledge is needed from the academic team and what the benefits to the business will be if it is solved. The business is then assisted to find a suitable academic team and together they prepare a plan to achieve the business objectives. This clear establishment of timely business objectives and of the academic knowledge needed is a central plank of KTP, and a key driver for its success.
Projects are delivered by specifically recruited ‘Associates'. The Associates are high-calibre, recently qualified individuals (usually possessing a 2:1 degree or a higher qualification) that work in the business for the duration of the project. Fundamentally, the Associate's responsibility is to combine the organisation's knowledge of the market with the academic's knowledge of the latest research in the field in order to deliver focussed business objectives. Linking training investment with business goals in this way means that the business can clearly identify the return on investment - a key theme identified in the CBI report.
The KTP programme was founded on the teaching hospital adage - ‘learning by doing' and it is this principle of ‘knowledge transfer' that sets the programme apart from that of in-house or bespoke consultancy. As the knowledge is embedded in to the business, each KTP project trains on average an additional 14 existing staff, reflecting the future business model of a growing trend in mentoring and in-house training.
Last year, KTP boasted a portfolio of just under 1,000 individual KTP projects - 24% more than the previous year. And as a result, UK businesses stand to benefit from over 6,500 company staff trained, some 1,120 new jobs created (aside from the recruitment of KTP Associates), and an overall increase in annual profit before tax of over £126 million. Averaged on an individual business level, that means an increase of over £270,000 in annual profits before tax and the creation of three genuine new jobs.
The CBI's report offers many stimulating insights into the ways the business context will change over the next decade. It's undeniable that the way we do business, the way we attract and retain talent, and the way we innovate will change. But the way we respond to, and keep ahead of those challenges remains the true driver for change.
If you would like to take advantage of the skills and funding available through KTP please visit www.ktponline.org.uk or call the KTP helpline on 0870 190 2829.
