Widening participation in pre-registration education in the United Kingdom - alumni and employer accounts of a unique part-time supported open learning route

Draper, Janet; Beretta, Ruth; Kenward, Linda; McDonagh, Lin; Messenger, Julie and Rounce, Jill (2013). Widening participation in pre-registration education in the United Kingdom - alumni and employer accounts of a unique part-time supported open learning route. In: 24th International Networking Education in Healthcare Conference, 3-5 Sep 2013, Cambridge.

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Abstract

Introduction
This study explored the impact of The Open University’s (OU) unique pre-registration nursing programme (PRNP) with particular reference to students’ employability, career progression and its contribution to developing the nursing workforce across the UK. The PRNP is the only part-time supported open learning programme in the UK leading to registration as a nurse. Purposefully designed for healthcare support workers (HCSWs) who are sponsored by their employers, the programme promotes widening participation to higher education (HE) and enables employers to invest in and develop their support workforce. Partnership working is crucial to its success.

The project is timely in relation to UK policy across both the HE and health sectors. In HE, there is current emphasis on widening participation (HEFCE, 2010), employability and adopting more flexible approaches to learning, including eLearning (JISC, 2008) and open supported learning. In the health sector, the considerable investment in nurse education, particularly at a time of financial austerity, means these programmes are subject to intense scrutiny with regard to their impact (RCN, 2012) and the extent to which they produce nurses who are fit for practise at the point of registration (Clark and Holmes, 2007).

Given the OU’s unique approach to practice-based professional learning in nursing – reflective of its institutional mission to be open to people, places, methods and ideas – the overarching aim of this project was to identify the perceived impact of the PRNP with reference to employability, career progression and workforce development.

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