A collegiate approach to apprenticeship research
Last year, I wrote an article discussing the idea of a new college for degree apprentices in Ipswich, modelled on Wolsey's 'Cardinal College of St. Mary'. In it, I highlighted the need for a physical space to accommodate Ipswich's degree apprentices, whether they work for an Ipswich employer or train with an Ipswich provider.
Since writing the article, I have been reflecting on whether Wolsey's foundation should have been rebuilt as soon as it had burned down. It is important to note that similar foundations, such as those of William of Wykeham (Winchester College) and Henry VI (Eton College), notably contribute to the culture of the "Old Boys Network" due to the elitism of their endowments. Had Wolsey's foundation been restored upon the initial fire, I would argue that it would not be unreasonable to infer that it too would have contributed to the Old Boys Network.?
Considering the feeder parts of the respective foundations, Winchester and Eton are both known for their prestige. However, this arguably comes at the expense of the local areas: they are amongst the most unequal places in the UK. An historic foundation in Ipswich would have risen to the same level.
So why would a contemporary foundation for Ipswich be worthwhile? In the succeeding 500 years, we have seen many changes in the access to education. It has been codified as a human right, it is now available to all and it has been a catalyst for social mobility for generations.
I believe that Ipswich should have considered reasserting its status as a centre of learning and education, even if this did not necessitate an exact reconstruction of Wolsey's foundation. This would have been motivated by the respect the people of Ipswich have for her most famous son, one of the brightest people of his period and a passionate supporter for education. This is something that must be addressed in our own time.
A benefit of the Thomas Wolsey 550 project is that we have the space in which to consider the impact of the life of the Cardinal. With a modern understanding of the state of the art of education, as well as a rediscovery of the educational component of Wolsey's legacy, we are in the best position to consider what forms a worthwhile foundation would take. This is something which should be discussed by the people of Ipswich - for what it is worth, I am laying out my own contributions here.
Since writing my original article about a college for degree apprentices, I have since suggested that this would form part of a wider Centre of Excellence for apprenticeships. Latterly, I discussed my vision for the facets of such an initiative:
This article is the third contribution to the wider topic of the Ipswich Centre of Excellence, and will focus on the research into apprenticeships. This serves to complement and bolster existing original research, though my approach hinges on the research's extension beyond a business-oriented study of apprenticeships.
To explore my idea on apprenticeship research, we must first acquire a more literal understanding of the word "college", the central focus of my idea.
The etymology of "college" is from the Latin "collegium", which means a partnership. Ultimately, this is from the roots "col-" and "legare" meaning "with" and "to depute" respectively. In this sense, the word college refers to a group of people under a common partnership serving a particular goal (in the sense of deputing).
This conception of a college would have been familiar to Wolsey, who was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Leo X in 1515 . In this setting, the College is the collection of all cardinals within the church, whose most important purpose is the election of a Pope in conclave. Wolsey himself was a papal candidate in the 1521-22 conclave.
The educational association with college starts from the incorporation of colleges of scholars within a wider university, such as at the Universities of Oxford and of Cambridge. In this sense, the college was a group of scholars and fellows with a common dedication and focus. Again, as an alumnus of Magdalen College, Wolsey would have also been familiar with this conception of the college.
One conception of the college with which the late Cardinal would not have been familiar is the focus of this article: the Collège de France. In 1530, Thomas Wolsey died in Leicester whilst travelling from his archdiocese of York to London. In the same year, King Fran?ois I of France founded the Collège de France on the urging of Guillaume Budé.?
This college was founded with humanist ideals, and taught: Hebrew, Ancient Greek and Mathematics. It is worth noting that these subjects were absent from the Sorbonne at the time, and were increasingly becoming important to Europe in the early modern period.
The research of the Collège is based on the occupancy of Chairs - these are positions held by Professors who are Francophones notable in their respective fields. Each Chair has the freedom to pursue any avenues down which their research takes them. For example, the current Chair in Combinatorics is the British mathematician Professor Timothy Gowers - he won the Fields Medal in 1998.
However, the Collège is not just known for the quality of its research output. As testified by the motto "Docet omnia" (Latin - "teach everyone"), the Collège is also known for its exceptional free public lectures delivered by the Chairs. These lectures have a long tradition of being delivered at the Collège, but are also available online from the Collège website and from the YouTube channel.
The Collège de France is also well-respected due to its international partnerships. As well as being a member of PSL University, it has relations with many universities and research organisations across Europe and the wider world.
The infrastructure in place at the Collège supports the ground-breaking research in all disciplines, and includes excellent libraries and laboratories.
These combine to make the Collège de France an important, outward-looking research institution that is unique.
At the risk of undermining this uniqueness, I reiterate Ipswich's need for a Centre of Excellence. The research component of this is inspired by the Collège de France, though the hope is that my own suggestions bring something different.
Principally, there would a College of Chairs - this would be in the original sense, with Chairs appointed under a common organisation to pursue research into apprenticeships. Whilst other apprenticeship research organisations exist, this college would differ by virtue of the widened scope of its research from its Chairs.
Each Chair will examine the common theme of apprenticeships, through the lens of their respective areas of expertise. This approach mirrors a module that I had taken previously in my apprenticeship. In "Professional Issues and Entrepreneurship in IT", I had learned the essential skill of examining the same issue from multiple academic perspectives - legal, social, ethical and technological. The process of working on this module was inspiring enough for me to transfer its ideas into a way that would positively impact future apprenticeships.
领英推荐
However, it is essential to consider deviations from the College de France. Whilst my proposal would implement Chairs, these would be structured differently:
The most important difference to note here is that each Chair will have two positions. The first position would be a Professor, who will produce original research on apprenticeships through the subject of their professorship. The second position would be an apprentice.
The apprentice will be a researcher, working at the college under the supervision of their respective professor. My idea is that they will be a Level 8 apprentice, obtaining a doctorate whilst working as a researcher. This doctorate would be in their chosen subject, and would be applied within the context of apprenticeship research.
However, we must consider how a Level 8 apprenticeship would be structured within this context. My suggestions would be twofold:
When compared to the Collège de France, the research college will be largely similar. However, there are also some key differences that I would propose, which are worth highlighting. Both similarities and differences are given below.
Firstly, none of the Chairs at the research college would be permanent. This is something which is common to the Collège de France. The intent is to ensure a fresh rotation of academics who are the best of their field. My hope is that someday the college at Ipswich would be home to the best academics lending their subject matter expertise into apprenticeships - for this point, I would imagine someone like Joseph Stiglitz or Richard Thaler occupying the Chair of Economics.
Next, I propose that both colleges would deliver free public lectures without condition or degree-granting. Common with the Collège de France, lectures from Ipswich would be available online and in-person.?
I would also add that the college of professors in Ipswich should expand their scope within the physical confines of the college building. That is, by giving lectures at local universities and organisations such as the Ipswich Institute. This would be part of a more civic-oriented approach to apprenticeship research, with academics engaged in apprenticeship outreach (such as in schools) and public speaking in Ipswich and the wider area. The former points to the necessity of lived experience of apprenticeship from the Subject Chairs.
Whilst the Collège de France is supported by world-class research facilities, the research college in Ipswich would rely on access to external libraries and IT-driven research. This would allow the college to work closely with providers of research infrastructure, should the need arise. My prediction is that the research carried out in Ipswich would rely less on laboratory work and more on systemic literature review.
Finally, I would argue that the college in Ipswich should place more emphasis on working with other Subject Chairs to create original research.
Tentatively, I would like to suggest the allocation of Chairs in the following subjects. Each Professor will train a PhD student as an apprentice researcher, as discussed above:
Whilst such a college currently exists as an idea, my hope is that it can become a reality. Getting to a point of realisation would be an amazing thing, but it would require a lot of preparatory work. This not only includes organisational and financial work, but also in the following.
Firstly, Ipswich needs to become a Centre of Excellence in Apprenticeships even before the ground is broken. I believe that the creation of the research college must engender as much civic pride as Ipswich Town Football Club. As an Ipswich local myself, the town itself normally feels inert. That is until the moment that Town fans convene from across the county and beyond. The civic pride should place some emphasis of the continuation of Wolsey's legacy for a new generation, in which the wider Centre of Excellence for Ipswich would fit.
For the research college to be excellent, it must attract excellence. This would mean maintain strong connections with learned societies and universities, both from the UK and across the Anglophone world. There would be a continual supply of the freshest perspectives from the state of the art of a given subject, even if they have no experience in the study of apprenticeships. The academics would have preliminary information, as well as a corpus of existing research, from which to learn about apprenticeships as a subject.?
The attraction of world-class academics to the research college would also require that Ipswich be a more welcoming place, with more open shops and social opportunities. This would ensure that the academics are happier and more fulfilled whilst working at the college.
Over time, admission to a subject Chair would predicate an existing level of apprenticeship knowledge and research. As an apprentice myself, I would say that lived experience is a key part of the advocacy of apprenticeships. Ideally, both Chairs of a subject and Junior Chairs would be apprentices - for this to be possible, I would suggest the creation of a pipeline which helps former apprentices into doctoral training. Further discussion of this is warranted, but will be outlined in more detail in the future.
Another important facet of realising the college would be fundraising. One idea would be the auctioning of Chair names (e.g. "Chair of Philosophy" -> "[Surname] Chair of Philosophy"). As this would be a permanent legacy, special care would need to be taken in ensuring that the eponymy of the Chairs are not fraught with issues.
It remains for me to conclude that the research college would require a physical presence to work. This would be a location in Ipswich from which the Chairs (of both types) can work together.
This article forms part of a larger series within #ThinkBIG. I started with the discussion of Wolsey's gate and the cultural moment that it created, and then followed with the outline of the Centre of Excellence. This article has been the third part, exploring the question of research within the Centre of Excellence.?
In the final part, which I hope to publish in the Summer, I will combine everything together in one vision for Ipswich and for apprenticeships.
Andrew Bolt is a Degree Apprentice, working for the Science and Technology Facilities Council and studying for a BSc (Hons) Digital and Technology Solutions degree at Anglia Ruskin University. This article forms part of the #ThinkBIG series of articles about apprenticeships
Some interesting and thought provoking ideas in this article.