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Ministerial Foreword
We began our school/college
review by examining existing collaboration between schools
and colleges in Scotland. Collaboration has served us well
up till now and we wanted to build on the good work already
taking place.
We complete our review with this strategy and its
accompanying guide for schools and colleges as
lifelong partners. They have been
developed in the context of our National Priorities in
Education, our lifelong learning strategy and our agenda
for action set out in
Ambitious, Excellent Schools.
This partnership approach recognises the breadth of
A Curriculum for Excellence - a breadth
that schools alone may have difficulty in delivering fully.
It also acknowledges that existing school/college activity
coupled with the growth over the coming years, to which we
commit ourselves in this strategy, represent a fundamental
re-alignment of the school and college sectors.
The different - but related - purposes of schools and
colleges complement each other. However, the distinctive
contribution that colleges can - and do - make to school
pupils' education arises from their primary role as centres
of voluntary learning for adults. To maintain the synergy
of the partnership and for colleges to cater fully for the
needs and aspirations of adult learners, it is essential
that that ethos is not altered.
This strategy focuses on increasing and further
enhancing school/college partnership to extend
opportunities for pupils to access high quality
experiences and gain full recognition for their
learning with colleges. We will make available, in
addition to existing resources, £41.5m across financial
years 2005/06 to 2007/08 to support this.
Our school/college review has been a
wide-ranging and lengthy review that has encompassed
a conference of 120 representatives to help frame a
discursive consultation paper, consultation on that paper,
consultation on the review's interim report and a draft
outline strategy, the issue of a quarter of a million
leaflets seeking the views of school pupils, and numerous
consultation events and meetings throughout the review. Our
research has examined existing school/college links and
crucially the attitudes of pupils to further education
courses as part of their school curriculum. This research
shows that pupils generally value college learning during
part of their school week.
The strategy and guide have also been informed by the
work of a number of groups representing both sectors and
pupil and adult student interests - the Working Group on
'Best Practice' on Planning and Management and Pupil
Welfare and Support, the Working Group on Funding, the
Working Group on the Qualifications of College Staff to
Teach School Pupils and the Vocational Education
Development Steering Group. We thank the chairs and members
of the groups and all pupils, parents, practitioners as
well as stakeholder organisations for their contributions
to each of the phases of the review.
The success of this strategy and its
accompanying guide will be measured by the success of
the pupils undertaking school/college partnership
activities - by their attendance, by their attainments
and achievements, and by the ease of their transitions
into further learning, training or employment.
It is on the solid foundation of schools and colleges
working together - in sustained partnership - that we can
build a lifelong learning society in Scotland.
 |  |
Jim Wallace
MSP
Deputy First Minister | Peter Peacock
MSP
Minister for Education and Young
People |
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