Blog
Learning to unlock potential: Getting the first pilot up and running
14 January 2025
Since IGL launched the Unlocking Innovative Potential: Experimentation Programme, we have been working and collaborating with our partners to bring this programme’s objectives to fruition. This blog shares what we have learned while testing our collaborative approach to identify experiment ideas that match research gaps, and the process of designing pilot experiments. As we have set up space for lessons to be shared within our programme, through our Community of Practice that aims to facilitate peer learning on experimental methods, in this blog we include insights from the first deep dive. During our first meeting we heard about the experience of our partner East Kent Colleges Group (EKC Group). Suzanna Gamwell, Group Head of Business Innovation, shared the Group’s specific barriers and enablers to experimentation, which deeply resonated with others and we hope will also do so with you.
At the end of 2024, EKC Group’s pilot experiment is the most advanced for this Programme, and is co-developed in partnership with EKC Group, Gerhard Reiner from Southampton University and Igor Asanov from Kassel University.
Navigating the path to setting up a pilot
IGL designed an approach to scope experiment ideas from the first gathering it organised with delivery partners. Our key questions included asking what problems or opportunities partners delivering interesting interventions to unlocking innovative potential in the UK felt could most benefit from an experimental approach to steer decision-making. EKC Group quickly identified three areas they wished to look into: equipping 16-19 years olds with entrepreneurial skills; connecting manufacturing learners with businesses to solve real-life industry problems; and using technical staff in colleges to help micro and small businesses to innovate. The three areas linked in well with wider policy focus on the role of further education colleges in innovation ecosystems. In order to get from many experiment ideas that had been scoped from within their organisation to one, IGL and EKC Group set about exploring the possibilities for questions to be addressed (how experimentation might help), within the time period of the programme (would an experimentation be feasible).
During this initial exploration, IGL developed digital collaboration tools to support the discussions with EKC Group during online meetings, and sent follow-up tasks to gather further information that would help inform us of which pilot might be best suited to take forward. The goal during this phase was always to work with the delivery partner to narrow the focus of the experiment ideas – reaching a decision together – as opposed to using our expertise of experimentation alone to define the scope within a context we would not have been as familiar with. IGL also engaged researchers in tandem, sharing a long list of potential ideas and more information on the delivery partner themselves to scope alignment with existing research areas. Policy partners in this programme were also informed of the long list of ideas being explored. This collaboration opened the space of possibilities for experimentation, while navigating delivery, research and policy needs. With EKC Group, these three perspectives were in close alignment, and we have been curious to identify the main ingredients that supported the progress we were able to make.
Learning from EKC Group
As we were scoping partners for this programme, the EKC Group was setting up a new unit focused on driving innovation, spurred by the opportunity to broaden their impact on the development of the economic and social prosperity of their diverse community. During their scoping phase, prior to May 2024 when our Programme began, they had discovered an evidence gap in the literature regarding the development of innovative capacity and skills within a further education and vocational education training context. This led them to thinking about ways to gather robust evidence through pilots. Discovering and joining our initiative was a natural next step in the journey EKC Group has already set out to become more innovative, and better contribute to innovation in the Kent region.
Learnings from the experimental process
During the design and implementation of this pilot, two aspects were highlighted as learning points for EKC Group: the value of existing knowledge they held, and the continued role of their wider organisation. For the former, the EKC Group, also due to the input of the research partners that collaborated with them, managed to make great use of the existing data they possessed and what they could collect. This enhanced their understanding of the core research question and enabled them to offer a robust evaluation of the intervention. Their data collection was grounded in best practices and standardised assessments which will facilitate this study and its external validity going forward.
The role the rest of the organisation played was also vital for the successful development of the pilot. The unit brought the intervention and involvement in the IGL programme to their executive team. While this extended the project timeline, the leadership endorsement raised the profile of the project and facilitated its implementation. The programme was also framed and used as an opportunity to solve the needs of other departments at EKC Group such as feeding back insights on online learning. Lastly, the prompt involvement of compliance functions ensured that the project would run smoothly.
IGL’s programme also quickly connected EKC Group with researchers, once the experiment ideas had been successfully whittled down to one that seemed both promising in terms of feasibility and relevant to research and policy impact. This expert guidance was and continues to be key for EKC Group who are nudged to consider design and delivery considerations they might not have had to otherwise.
With the support and feedback of IGL and expert researchers Gerhard Reiner and Igor Asanov, EKC Group is ready to implement the pilot which will hopefully answer the pressing questions that EKC Group has, such as the effectiveness of online learning and the benefits of a toolkit intervention. Running this pilot will allow them to build an internal evidence base around what does and doesn’t work in terms of upskilling their further education learners in this area. This will enable better-informed decision-making and resource organising. For EKC Group, any barriers encountered so far have served to create a best practice which will contribute to the rest of their experimental journey. This is a wonderful indication of an organisation geared towards being innovation champions within their own processes and, as we hope to discover through findings of the research conducted, within the innovation ecosystem they are a part of through their commitment to delivering and evidencing impact.