The National HE STEM Programme (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) is an initiative funded by the Higher Education Funding Councils for England and Wales. Although focused around Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, it primarily supports the disciplines of Chemistry, Engineering, Mathematics and Physics. These are STEM subjects that have been deemed strategically important and vulnerable, and were the subject of pilot Project activities initiated by the Higher Education Funding Council for England in 2005 and 2006.

This project involved work for the West Midlands and East Anglia spokes of the National HE STEM Programme.  The purpose of the work was to support the National HE STEM Programme in its work to focus on supporting higher education providers in the region with their work reaching out to students and working with employers to support the STEM education requirements of the 21st Century.

The work initially focused on researching across the Higher Education providers in the region to establish the types of employer engagement that were taking place within these bodies and how this interaction was impacting on curriculum development and the student experience.

As the work evolved it began to provide a closer look at how the different disciplines of maths, physics, chemistry and engineering had slightly different drivers influencing the most effective form of engagement between employers and HE Providers.  It also had a quick look at the variety in student destinations that might influence the relevance of the employer engagement interventions to the student experience.

The report was researched and written up over  a short timescale between late January and February 2011.  It required the ability to project manage and plan work, communicate with higher education bodies and employers, and to analyse and report the findings coherently.  It also required the ability to look further than the initial research to consider factors underlying the impact of employer interventions and to seek data to support any evidence of variations between the disciplines.