Vocational courses in universities: where there's a skill, there's a way

ver fancied running your own business? No? Well how about being a pilot? OK, then how does producing the latest chart-topping album sound? Or penning the script for a Hollywood blockbuster? From sports management to computer games design, all manner of vocational courses are on offer in higher education.

Many institutions are offering foundation degrees: vocational qualifications lasting two years. Staffordshire University is soon to launch its foundation degree in business start-up, which takes vocational training from apprenticeship to The Apprentice and promises to shepherd a new business venture through its crucial first two years. Students will enter the course on the back of an innovative idea and course leaders say they are willing to listen to anyone, from plumbers to IT specialists.

Successful candidates will be able to take advantage of free business premises for 12 months, gain access to the university's state-of-the-art business villages at Stoke and Stafford and, rather than conventional lectures, attend a gold mine of workshops, master classes and case studies.

Rex Hollyman, programme area manager at the Staffordshire University Business School, says: "It's about developing an idea, selling a product and growing the business. We're trying to demonstrate that the skills students learn can be transferred to the workplace."

In addition to the foundation degree, Staffordshire offers degrees in sports journalism, geography with mountain leadership and, for budding Spielbergs, film technology. Bolton University boasts a degree for those with an eye for the silver screen, and this year, with the support of the UK Film Council, has awarded five Skillset Film Skills Fund bursaries for screenwriters on their accredited media, writing and production BA. The Skillset seal of approval means that committed students will be industry-ready on graduation: a blessing no doubt, the world of film being as it is - a tough nut to crack. "It's a hard market to break, but we try to get the ball rolling," says Dr Martin Flanagan. "We encourage students to ingratiate themselves with the industry as soon as possible."

Just as academic courses rely on the strength of scholars in their own field, vocational courses depend upon tutors with practical experience and links with the world of industry.

Jenny Shepherd, the course leader at Bolton, is a screenwriter herself, and the university has forged good links with the BBC, where previous students have undertaken work-based learning. Opportunities of this kind are set to increase as BBC departments migrate to the North-west from London. The degree is, at first, two-thirds vocational, covering screenwriting, digital film-making and theoretical film studies.

Students can then specialise in two areas after 18 months. According to Dr Flanagan, the course aims to impart knowledge of "the realistic side of film-making: managing funds and resources," alongside "a profound sense of aesthetics. It's an academic course," he says, "but it's hands on. It's about production. We want to produce independent, motivated film producers." Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College (BCUC) is seen by some as the higher education market leader for courses of this kind.

"We still think we're the best," says director and chief executive Dr Ruth Farwell. "We've set out to offer courses that are externally facing towards certain employment markets. What's important is the links we have with employers, which is aided by our academics and their previous experience."

Indeed, BCUC offers an impressive array of courses, which are formulated on a mixture of history and innovation. So it is that courses like furniture design and craftsmanship, which builds on the strong industry roots in High Wycombe, can sit alongside modern incarnations like air transport with commercial pilot training.

"As technology changes, what becomes vocat- ional gets added to," says Dr Farwell.

"All degrees aim to meet what it takes to be a graduate. But not everyone wants an academic course. It depends what you want to get out of your degree. We're offering a particular route to a particular job."