Business studies
To explore the relationship between the education and commercial sector, FM World brought together two key experts, from each field to discuss what the sectors can learn from one another.
Appleyards Consultants and BDGworkfutures, spent a morning covering a broad range of issues from stakeholders, space use and technology. The breadth of discussion was such that this has led to the development of a think tank on the subject which will invite other experts to join in the debate. For now, here is an overview of some of the key areas up for discussion.
The relationship between education and the world of work is a critical one — success in formal learning years often results in success later in life, providing us with career choices and opportunity. It is easy to assume that ’education’ precedes ‘work’ as distinct chapters in our lives. In fact the activities we undertake for office orientated careers can be remarkably similar to those we experience in our formal learning years.
So often graduates are seemingly unprepared for the workplace. Recent research from the Confederation of Business Industry showed that a fifth of UK companies fear gaps in the education system will impact on their ability to recruit a skilled workforce due to the fact that young people are not being prepared with the employability skills they need to succeed in the next stage of life. The CBI has called on the new coalition government to recognise and act on this.
The survey asked employers to name their top priority for the new coalition on education and skills, finding that 70 per cent of employers want them to ensure all young people leave school equipped with appropriate skills for them to succeed in the workplace, including communication, teamwork and problem solving.
So many of these skills are experiential, ie, not what you know but how you do it. As we all know our environments have an enormous impact upon our behaviour and just maybe this is a key to understanding how we can merge these different phases in our lives, through focusing and building on the similarities. As the discussion between BDG and Appleyards highlights, there is far more common ground in terms than perhaps we would expect — as Appleyards said "it’s often the labels that get in the way".
What do real estate assets represent?
Appleyards: The key difference in terms of what the property as an asset represents is directly linked to the community ownership. Location in a community is key which means that public consultations relating to a school closure can provoke outcry in communities. School closures have implications for future generations, if you take away learning, you take away ladders to social mobility — livelihood. Increasingly schools are becoming ‘hubs’ for communities and this is a good thing. Joining up assets in education at all age stages, incorporating libraries and leisure facilities can be cost effective and ensure that communities are built around and embrace their schools.
BDG: For a corporate organisation, property represents a large figure on the balance sheet that needs to be understood as a financial asset and utilised as a business tool, to maximise the effectiveness of that organisation and the people within it. In recent times we have seen the pendulum swing towards greater involvement with surrounding communities in the form of CSR and of course this is a good. However without a profit, these businesses will cease to exist so profit has to be the number one priority. As a consequence business can and will move if there is a strong business case to do so which inevitably means that community ties are necessarily weaker.
Who is the client?
Ultimately it is the head teacher or CEO who has the responsibility for managing the property, which perhaps is an indicator of how vital property and its management is in any type of organisation. What makes the difference is how these individuals approach and manage it.
BDG: The phrase we use for the most effective client type is ‘benevolent dictator’ — the best client brings clarity, clear decision making and has the best interests of the organisation and the employees at the heart of the property strategy.
Appleyards: Headteachers often hold similar strong visions and they are apparent. The purpose of the physical environment is to support the curriculum and what they want their pupils to achieve. However they are often faced with protracted decision making due to the number of stakeholders they are required to consult with. The building doesn’t take the time — it’s the debate around it, new initiatives and the change management programme. A key difference relating to education projects is the wide span and sheer quantity of stakeholders in from parents/carers, children, local businesses, national economy, local authorities, elected members, and central government to name a few. And with this comes a plethora of targets which can be unhelpful in terms of focusing.
BDG: In commercial projects there are still many stakeholders with a range of needs but it would be fair to say that there is one ultimate client and I suspect that some of decision making processes are shorter because of that.
Measures of space
The corporate world is acutely aware of the absence of a standardised bench mark for workplace standard. Some do exist, but there is a distinct lack of clarity. This is an area that the education sector appears to have sorted with the BB98 guidance. Introduced in the 60s, it measures space in categories through definition of space. Classrooms for example are distinct from libraries or science laboratories. The budget is allocated on numbers of pupils and space.
BDG: BDGworkfutures has its own benchmarking as a practice, based on sector and number of people we can estimate space requirements but there is no industry tool. There are several options ie. BCO, IPD and OGC have one for public sector and they all say different things.
Appleyards: Because schools are state funded you have to have a universal model because everyone is drawing from the same pot. This does have the advantage of stopping intellectual arguments.
BDG: In addition we have to consider that many of our clients are global so we have to consider international standards and expectations.
Appleyards: Education is much clearer in funding, X no of places X amount of funding so you don’t need to try to lower an overhead. There is no incentive to reduce it other than surplus return which is a measure of efficiency of public sector funding. Alternative use of space is always better than moth balling, a primary school for example can be used a nursery. A middle school is currently being considered as the base for one of the government’s new Free Schools.
Schools have to estimate numbers over 25 year periods — very difficult to predict as there are so many variables. In a recession for example, people have more children so the community needs more school places. It is not viable to expand and contract the physical building, so we need to look at flexible use.
BDG: In terms of flexibility, we need to understand the expectations of our clients, 10 years ago corporates were far more willing to project growth but are more reluctant to do so now.
Spaces for tasks and flexible working
Appleyards: A school has to accommodate different learning spaces ie, the gymnasium, IT rooms, art studios as well as the traditional ‘class room’.
BDG: There is far less differentiation in the knowledge based professional services, the subject may differ but the activity is the same. The differentiation in the space comes from the workstyle required for the task, as opposed to the subject. Work is work. Banking is not wildly different from media — if you are working in teams thinking up new ideas, principles are the same. If you are producing a report — methodology is the same. However principles of ‘flexible working’ can be likened to ‘timetable management’ — both have the ability to maximise space use at appropriate times.
Appleyards: The relatively new initiative for Studio Schools from The Young Foundation is a vocational approach to learning from 14-to-18 year olds. The emphasis of this is to get the pupils out of the school therefore less space is required.
BDG: There is a clear parallel here but it is more simplistic in the corporate world. It is obvious when people are out of the office because there are more empty desks and/or full meeting rooms. I would imagine this model could be more complicated for education. However, there is a clear opportunity here to ease the passage as pupils move from education to work in terms of the design of physical space and how it is used. Understanding how an environment can assist you and your work/learning is potentially a transferable skill that could make a real difference in the workplace, knowing how to use the tools available to you can be critical to success.
Appleyards: Going forward it is only hoped that the country will begin to be more creative about the ‘vocational/academic divide’ — ie pupils with workplace skills rather than university based ones — practical learning as distinct from academic learning. We need to look at all of these skills. None of us falls into just one category or the other; we are a mix of both. In addition and more importantly still, each and every individual’s motivations and determinations are very different.