Some university lecturers still see skills as a ¡°dirty word¡±, according to a new Labour MP, who said that institutions needed to better focus on creating ¡°rounded¡± individuals.

Peter Swallow, who?unexpectedly became the first Labour MP?for Bracknell in the party¡¯s landslide victory in the July general election, said some in the sector were still holding on to a ¡°perfect ideal¡± that a university education has nothing to do with future employment.

The classicist, who was a postdoctoral researcher at Durham University prior to the poll, said there was also a need to move on from the view that skills training was merely about preparing someone to become a ¡°cog in the economic machine¡±.

¡°It is frankly still the case that in too many universities, too many university lecturers think skills is a dirty word and we have to get better at embedding skills-based education into the curriculum,¡± Dr Swallow told a fringe event at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.

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¡°Frankly, we need to get our university teachers better at teaching,¡± he added. ¡°We have to look at the university as being for growing a person as a person. That means making sure they are equipped with both the knowledge and skills to move into a role but also ways of learning and being prepared for the next stage in life as a more rounded individual.¡±

Labour?has signalled its intention to?focus on skills training in government?with the creation of a new body, Skills England, and a commitment to expand the apprenticeship levy to become a wider?¡°growth and skills levy¡±, creating potential opportunities for universities.?

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Many have also highlighted how universities can help Labour become a ¡°mission-led¡± government ¨C focused on clean energy, growth, the NHS, equality of opportunity and crime ¨C?and Mr Swallow said it was a ¡°clich¨¦¡± that academia is only good at long-term solutions.

¡°I think that is quite wrong about universities,¡± he said. ¡°They are already putting a lot of stuff into practice that this government needs to pay attention to.¡±

Nic Beech, vice-chancellor of the University of Salford, told the event hosted by the Purpose Coalition that academics were used to a culture of risk-taking and experimentation, pointing out that the basis of research was ¡°always moving into the area of the unknown¡±.

¡°The challenge is when you lift that to a systemic or institutional level, there are all sorts of forces that see that as problematic,¡± Professor Beech added.

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¡°That¡¯s why I think having longer-term missions that we don¡¯t expect to have quick fixes and having an orientation to them that combines learning, skills and research and accepts that is a culture change, that is the way we can go forward.

¡°For universities the challenge is to allow people to be honest and open about that and see those as really positive things.¡±

Professor Beech said Salford was in the process of reorganising its academic staff around themes instead of just schools as the way institutions recruit and promote academics ¡°massively reinforces an individualised way of thinking¡±.

¡°All of the processes and practices that will hit these sorts of missions ¨C and broader ones ¨C are team problems,¡± he said.

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¡°So, we need to reform the way we think about how we recruit people and how we promote them.

¡°We have schools, but the themes cut right across, and we say, OK, our next crop of recruits are going to be in a theme, not just a school. The way you progress your career is partly by seeing the way you collaborate and joined in with others.¡±

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tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com