Blended Professionals: Stirred but not shaken (Working Paper)

Acknowledgements This paper, which is a work in progress, is the outcome of ongoing work at Continuum on the support, recognition and training needs of specific groups of support staff: widening participation practitioners and staff managing student ambassadors and mentoring schemes; and their professional identity. ESCalate provided funding to enable our initial work with widening participation practitioners to be extended to staff managing student ambassadors and mentoring schemes. In undertaking this work we have also begun to develop a more rigorous theoretical framework drawing on the work of Celia Whitchurch on "blended professionals" -staff who work in both academic and professional domains. Early findings from the research were disseminated at an invited seminar held at the Higher Education Funding Council in London and more recently at the 2009 FACE Conference. Thanks are due to the respondents who contributed to this endeavour by completing the online survey, some of whom also participated in the follow up focus groups. In addition we are grateful to colleagues who contributed to the invited workshop at HEFCE and the FACE Conference by commenting on our early thoughts and findings which have helped us in writing this paper and the forthcoming data report Partnership and collaborative working is central to the mission of Continuum and we were pleased to engage with colleagues working in a variety of contexts and settings in our endeavour to bring together research, policy and practice. This paper, which is a work in progress, is the outcome of ongoing work at Continuum on the support, recognition and training needs and professional identity of specific groups of support staff: widening participation practitioners and staff who manage student ambassadors and mentoring schemes. ESCalate provided funding to support work with widening participation practitioners to be extended to staff managing student ambassadors and mentoring schemes. The changing Higher Education landscape has had a significant effect on the role of academic and professional staff and a profound effect on professional identity. The aims of the scoping study were: • to explore the extent of support and recognition for practitioners; • to identify the learning and training needs of a particular group of support staff. In undertaking this work Continuum has begun to develop a more rigorous theoretical framework drawing on the work of Celia Whitchurch on "blended professionals" -staff who work in both academic and professional domains. These niche professionals based in multi-functional teams working on what Whitchurch (2008) describes as "institutional projects" are blurring the boundaries between previously well defined academic and professional domains leading to the creation of a "third space." An online survey of practitioners was used to gather data on both the previous learning and training that practitioners had received and to identify their future training needs. Early findings from the research were disseminated at an invited seminar held at the Higher Education Funding Council in London and more recently at the 2009 FACE Conference Abstract The changing Higher Education landscape has had a significant effect on the role of academic and professional staff and profound effect on professional identity. We set the scene for by reporting on findings from a recent focussed research project on the development needs of staff working in higher education with responsibility for student ambassadors, mentors and mentoring programmes. This work builds on previous research into the development, training and accreditation needs of widening participation practitioner (Hudson & Pooley, 2006). An online survey of practitioners was used to gather data on both the previous learning and training that practitioners had received and to identify their future training needs. In addition the survey also explored respondents'' professional identity and impact of location within their institutional setting. The survey revealed a string demand for current informal learning activities to be recognised and accredited. These findings were supported by practitioner focus groups which also explored the issue of professional identity in more depth. These niche professionals working in multi-functional teams working on what Whitchurch (2008) describes as "institutional projects" are blurring the boundaries between previously well defined academic and professional domains leading to the creation of a "third space." New Learning Professionals