The College Innovation Network

Employer Engagement with Colleges and the Adoption and Diffusion of Innovation

As a starting point, CIN decided to research the depth and nature of college engagement with small and medium enterprises (SMEs), focusing on how colleges could support innovation in those businesses.

The research included a range of stakeholder engagement activities and two questionnaires that captured the perspectives of both businesses and colleges.

This study found that while Scottish colleges engage with employers on a range of services, innovation support is still at an early stage because capacity is limited and funding streams are only now becoming available to the college sector. Survey findings also showed that some businesses are still confused by the innovation landscape and need help understanding what innovation means for their business and where to turn for support.

In their responses, employers described the kind of innovation projects they wanted to engage with. This shows a clear demand for the practical support and academic expertise that colleges can provide. In turn, colleges showed a willingness to work with businesses, but they identified challenges to doing this, such as limited academic and administrative capacity and funding issues. 

Main Findings

The recommendations from the research can be summarised as:

• Government and its agencies should consider what changes are needed to policy and funding to enable colleges to support businesses to innovate. Only through the development of infrastructure and relevant sustained funding mechanisms will colleges’ capacity be able to align with the ambitions of SMEs in the adoption and diffusion of innovation. This will drive productivity, growth and economic development.
• Colleges need to adopt a realistic and strategic approach to the delivery of innovation activities. They can learn from their Northern Irish peers who have incrementally increased capacity and expertise by having a strategic long-term plan and collaborating with others in the innovation ecosystem.
• Alternative delivery models, such as employing technical experts and using short-term contracts, can have a significant impact on innovation activities. This is particularly true for colleges who do not have the same flexibilities that universities have, such as contracted time for research and the benefit of having commercialisation teams.
• A collective approach to marketing and communication would help strengthen the college presence in the Scottish innovation ecosystem and increase understanding of the range of innovation support offered by colleges.