Professor Keith Schofield (pictured), head of The Open University Business School, discusses meeting local businesspeople and entrepreneurs, as well as some interesting research and a new financial literacy course for teens, in his farewell monthly column.
Milton Keynes undoubtedly has an exciting future with a number of key factors strongly in its favour.
Geographically positioned at the centre of the Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor, we have a skilled and entrepreneurial population, an integrated education and skills sector, and an ecosystem of large businesses and SMEs. And, of course, The Open University is based in the city!
I was delighted to be invited to speak (main photo) at the inaugural MK Business Summit, hosted by the local Chamber of Commerce on Friday 13 February, which was opened by Callum Anderson, the Labour MP for Buckingham and Bletchley. A key theme was the power of partnership, bringing together businesses, educators, government and the wider community to enable sustainable and inclusive growth across the region. My particular focus was on the critical role which skills, education and innovation will play in shaping the future economy of Milton Keynes. It was an excellent morning with interesting conversations with business owners and business leaders.
And I am also really looking forward to the Milton Keynes Business Achievement Awards at Stadium MK this month, especially as the OU is the headline sponsor. I hope to see some of you on the night (Thursday 19 March) and please say hello.
*International Women’s Day on Sunday 8 March has the theme of Give to Gain with the emphasis on celebrating women and challenging the systems which hold them back.
Two of my colleagues are great examples of doing just that. Dr Wenjin Dai and Dr Francesca Calo, alongside Dr Fidele Mutwarasibo and Dr Steven Parker, conducted research to amplify the voices of ethnic minority mothers with children under school age in the UK. By exploring how gender, ethnicity and motherhood intersect, the project focused on understanding how best to support mothers from diverse backgrounds. Based on these women’s diverse and unique experiences, our researchers have made recommendations on how policies should be designed to combine the important roles of worker and mother.
The project team also collaborated with fellow researchers (Policing colleagues Dr Keely Duddin and Kendal Wright) and external organisations including the Department for Work and Pensions to develop two Return-to-Work toolkits as part of the OU’s Mumentum campaign. These are aimed at supporting mothers’ transition back into the workplace and providing strategies for employers to reintegrate them effectively. The toolkits are for mothers and primary caregivers as well as employers – turning research into practical support to help tackle the motherhood penalty and support career progression.
You can hear Wenjin and Francesca talk about their research and the toolkits in a free webinar on Thursday 12 March (11:00 – 12:30) via this MS Teams link (no need to register, just join on the day).
*It’s always fantastic when our alumni support our social mission. One MBA alumnus is the financial muscle behind a new course for schools available via our OpenLearn Create digital platform. Managing my Money for Young Adults has been created thanks to long-standing OU supporter Sir David Harrison, a financial services entrepreneur based in the North East.
The OU Business School’s Professor of Finance Ali Ataullah developed this new course, in collaboration with the Harrison Foundation, which is designed to help strengthen future workforce skills and improve employability among young people. Aimed at those aged 15 to 17, it is divided into nine short sessions over five hours, allowing teachers to deliver it in classrooms, set it for guided independent learning or use it as homework – see more on the course.
