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Chapter 10: Employer Views of College
The Employers Skill Survey 2004 by Futureskills Scotland sought information from employers about how they engage with Scotland's colleges and other providers of education and training. Specifi c questions were drafted for the survey to help inform the then Scottish Further Education Funding Council study of supply and demand in the college sector21.
Colleges are a major supplier of recruits to employers. Of the workplaces surveyed, 14% recruited an employee straight from leaving college in the previous two to three years prior to the survey (18% had recruited straight from school and 12% straight from university). Approximately 77,300 FE graduates were recruited or 4% of employment levels at the time of the 2004 survey.
College leavers were recruited into a wide range of occupations but generally speaking they were more likely than university graduates to be recruited into sales and customer service, personal service or skilled trades' occupations.
Results from the Employers Skill Survey 2004 include the following.
How well prepared for work are staff recruited directly on leaving college?
- Workplaces rated the preparedness of college leavers alongside that of university leavers. The lowest rates of preparedness were for those recruited directly on leaving school.
- 81% of workplaces thought that college leavers were well prepared for work in terms of softer, core skills such as communication, team working or problem solving (83% for university leavers and 55% or school leavers 22).
- 80% thought they were well prepared in terms of technical skills (82% for university leavers and 55% for school leavers).
How important are qualifications and subjects studied when employers make a recruitment decision?
- Over a quarter of workplaces said that either the subject studied by their most recently recruited FE graduate or the qualification achieved was "essential for the job - they could not have started without it".
- For 37% of workplaces the subject studied was "very important" or "quite important".
To what extent do employers use FE colleges to train staff?
- Colleges were cited as providers of training by 23% of establishments but the most often cited providers of training were private training providers cited by 49% of workplaces.
- The most often cited reason for not using a college to provide training was that they could not "offer appropriate training in terms of subject area". The next most common reasons were that "there was not enough time to train staff through an FE college" and that colleges "do not offer suitable training in terms of mode of delivery" (13%) 23.
How do the colleges compare with other providers of training?
- 82% of workplaces were either very satisfied or fairly satisfied with the level of training provided through colleges. For private training providers satisfaction levels were similarly high - 88%.
Case Study: Registration of Social Service Workers
Scotland's colleges are at the forefront of providing the training and workforce development necessary in the voluntary and private sector to implement the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001. The Act seeks to improve skills, standards of service, and the protection of the public, by requiring a 'registered workforce' regulated by the Scottish Social Services Council.
West Lothian College supports this by offering the full range of qualifications: National Qualifications, Scottish Vocational Qualifications, Higher National Certificates and Professional Development Awards. These programmes are available at a range of times: evening, afternoon and drop in. Units are also being converted to 'on-line' study.
It provides courses for:
- Childminders;
- Play workers;
- Wrap-a-round assistants;
- Out-of-school club assistants;
- Classroom assistants; and
- Support assistants.
The College delivers the Professional Development Award to West Lothian Council employees as part of their Continuous Professional Development in line with the needs of the 'registration'. It also offers Council employees the HNC as part of their professional development and as a career pathway to help predicted shortages once registration begins.
Case Study: Enterprise
I didn't expect the unit on the course, but it has given me insight into what I have to do to give myself a real chance
As A Smart, Successful Scotland explains, "enterprising attitudes and an understanding of the world of work are being developed as part of the education system through initiatives including Determined to Succeed - the Executive's enterprise in education strategy."
Having worked closely with local schools to deliver Determined to Succeed, Edinburgh's Telford College looked at how it could adapt the approach for school education to the wider college environment.
The College recognised that all of its students had to work to support their studies or were in work studying part-time. Early in 2003 it decided to base its enterprise work on this. Through discussions with employers, the college identified the key skills they were looking for, such as customer focus, being receptive to change and attention to detail.
A programme was delivered to different groups of students and with funding from the Scottish Qualifications Agency, a Personal Enterprise Skills unit of learning was developed. The unit is either incorporated into existing programmes of study (in college or in a community-based setting) or delivered on its own. It directly links securing employment with understanding the issues involved in successful career development.
As well as informing the development of this curriculum, the College's Student Employment Service also helps students identify and gain core competencies and matches students to local business for part-time employment.
Commenting on the new unit, Shaun Broadfoot, an HND Sports Coaching student, said "I didn't expect the unit on the course, but it has given me insight into what I have to do to give myself a real chance".
Case Study: Custom Designed Training for Companies
As A Smart, Successful Scotland explains, "the ability to identify and respond quickly and flexibly to changing demands from employers is a characteristic of an effective labour market. To achieve this, a culture of lifelong learning amongst those in the market and those involved in supplying the labour market is needed."
As well as delivering general training and education for the shipping industry, Glasgow College of Nautical Studies also provides specialist training programmes to suit individual organisations with a specific demand for training. It has been possible to offer this training due to either the availability of marine equipment required to be at the College to undertake mainstream programmes or due to the expertise of many of the College's marine staff.
The College was approached in 2003 by an oil tanker operator based in Saudi Arabia with a request for a series of one week courses for their serving deck officers to undertake oil cargo handling courses based on a specialised cargo control room simulator.
Having received assurances of continuing custom, the College purchased the specific simulator required to train the operator's officers. The simulator consists of an instructor station housing five monitors and six individual student stations. Each of these individual student stations comprises dual screen monitors and a communications module.
The objective of the course is to recreate as realistic an operating environment as possible to enable students to plan and execute cargo operations on different types of vessels. Students are able to communicate with the shore terminal or other personnel on board as well as operating pumps, valves and a myriad of associated shipboard equipment. The instructor is able to introduce a variety of malfunctions to assess ability to cope with realistic failures although usually most students benefit more from experiential learning of their own errors in a 'safe' environment.
The course attracts students from around the world.
The College has also run several similar courses tailored to suit other organisations, and has invested in other ship models on the simulator which has enabled courses for Liquid Gas cargoes to be offered. There is currently a great demand for trained personnel on such vessels and over 40 of these vessels are currently under construction worldwide as operators attempt to meet demand. In addition, the simulator is supporting the learning of students on mainstream courses.
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