The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

Chapter 2: A Sketch of Scotland's Colleges

Scotland's 43 colleges ⁸ deliver learning in over 4,000 locations. 90% of the Scottish population lives within 30 minutes of a college location ⁹.

Colleges offer a wide range of courses and qualifications at non-advanced and advanced levels. The curriculum spans much of the range of learning needs, from specialised vocational education and training (such as construction, hairdressing, engineering, information technology, hospitality, and health and social care) through to general educational programmes. The level of provision ranges from essential life skills and provision for students with learning difficulties through to higher national certificates ( HNCs) and higher national diplomas ( HNDs) as well as degree level and post-graduate work.

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework ( SCQF) is outlined in Annex B. The SCQF provides an overview of the range of qualifications available in Scotland and shows how different qualifications relate to each other. The college sector provides education at almost every level.

There is a wide range of courses on offer at a college including:

• vocational and general education, including higher education courses;
• Modern Apprenticeships, Skillseekers and 'Get Ready for Work' programmes;
• school pupil programmes;
• courses in the workplace;
• distance learning;
• access courses;
• courses for students with learning diffi culties;
• pre-employment training;
• courses necessary for the registration of public service workers, such as social and health care;
• training for employees, including bespoke training programmes;
• trade union learning;
• evening classes, vocational and non-vocational;
• literacy and numeracy;
• English for Speakers of Other Languages ( ESOL) and
• prisoner rehabilitation.

Colleges deliver a wide range of subjects. These include manufacturing, catering, health care, engineering, social sciences, construction, sport and recreation, personal development and media. Some courses support the needs of particular local communities, such as courses for the oil industry in Aberdeen.

Colleges are also involved in wider activities to help develop the knowledge base of business to enhance their capacity to grow. In February 2005, the Scottish Further Education Unit published a report on Initiating Adopting and Building Knowledge Transfer and Scotland's Colleges¹⁰. Colleges activities outlined in that report include:

• support for managers in implementing significant change management processes;
• undertaking audits of operations as part of a review of business systems;
• advising on implementation of ICT infrastructure;
• reviewing skill levels leading to recommendations on learning provision;
• providing learning related to legislative changes and designed to sustain company operation; and
• short course provision on business planning to support business formation.

In 2004-05, there were over 350,000 students in Scotland's colleges. This amounted to over 450,000 enrolments in courses (this is because some students are enrolled in more than one course in the same academic year).

College activity is measured by activity expressed in terms of student units of measurement ( SUMs), which are based on a notional 40 hours of student learning time. Most college activity is for programmes leading to recognised qualifications (91% in 2004-05). Courses that do not lead to such qualifications include courses developed specifically for the needs of particular businesses or for individuals such as those with additional support needs.

Enrolments by mode of study, 2004-05¹¹:

Figure 1 on page 15 shows a further breakdown of enrolments, students and college activity by different types of study.

Figure 2 shows the number of college students and the associated number of enrolments and activity from 1998-99 to 2004-05. The graph reflects from 2001-02 onwards the policy of the Funding Council to concentrate on increasing or maintaining (in real terms) the rate at which it funded colleges and ceased funding any expansions in student activity.

Case Study: Trade Union Learning

"Without the training I received through the TUC Education Programme at Stow College I would never have been able to do this."

As A Smart, Successful Scotland explains, "Trade unions promote and provide expertise on developing good workplace practices, which help to encourage a well motivated and productive workforce. Unions also play a pivotal role in encouraging and supporting the skills development of their members''.

Over 1,000 union learning reps are now operating in Scotland (Source: STUC).

Stow College is one of the colleges in Scotland commissioned by the TUC to deliver a variety of trade union education courses.

Graeme is 43 and a Unison Health and Safety Representative and Shop Steward. He became a union steward in 1995 and attended his first TUC Education Course at Stow College in the same year. Since then he has progressed through the core TUC course programme. He completed the health and safety stage one in 2000 (10 days day release); stage two in 2001 (10 days day release) and stage three in 2003-04 (36 days day release).

He has commented that "The most active, knowledgeable and confident representatives in the Unison Social Work Branch are those who have come through the TUC Education Programme at Stow College."

In February 2003 there was a fire at a retirement home in Uddingston in which 14 people lost their lives. As a result steps were taken to ensure this tragedy could not occur in Glasgow. A partnership agreement/approach involving the union side (fronted and coordinated by Graeme) and management was initiated resulting in joint inspections of 24 children's units and 23 elderly homes. Existing control measures identified through the risk assessment process were checked and recommendations for improvements were made.

"Without the training I received through the TUC Education Programme at Stow College I would never have been able to do this."

Graeme

Case Study: Community-Based Learning

The knowledge, communication skills and support received at the centre have been essential to me. At the end of this month I shall begin a Postgraduate Certificate in Education.

"Many colleges promote a broad range of flexible learning opportunities in various locations. The delivery of programmes at times and in locations convenient to learners encouraged a wide range of participants to enrol in complete programmes of study. Almost all colleges offer distance-learning programmes and are developing an increasing range of online learning materials ."Improving Scottish Education, HMIE 2006.

Over 40% of enrolments in 2004-05 were enrolled away from the main college campus.

Dumfries and Galloway College serves one of the biggest catchment areas (2500 square miles) with one of the sparsest populations (58.8 per square miles) in the UK.

To address this the college has developed a network of learning centres throughout the region. They act as a focus for delivery to over 3,000 students.

The centres vary in size from 1 to 20 computers but are all similar in that they are run in partnership with a wide range of agencies. The college may not own or pay for the premises, nor sometimes the resources, but it is responsible for the delivery of the curriculum and provision of the learning material. Much of this is on line and the college has developed a virtual learning environment delivering learning material in all curriculum areas to all students 24/7 across the region, in work, at home or in learning centres.

The number of centres and their locations vary over time in response to demand. However at any one time there are usually between 20 and 30 centres in locations throughout Dumfries and Galloway. They have been located in libraries, schools, community centres, pubs, factories, offices, fire stations and shops and have been supplemented by two related initiatives.

"I had lived as a traveller since returning to the United Kingdom from overseas in 1997, subsisting largely on casual, low-paid employment and found the insecurity of this lifestyle and irregular income increasingly hard to sustain. I was seriously disadvantaged in both researching options open to me and applying for posts or courses. I had virtually no experience of computers and no access to any. The learning centre has provided me with physical access to computers and the education in how to use them. My future employment prospects, in a short space of time, have been transformed, as has my potential to contribute and participate in a wider sphere of society. The knowledge, communication skills and support received at the centre have been essential to me. At the end of this month I shall begin a Postgraduate Certificate in Education."

Dan

Case Study: International Knowledge Transfer

As The Framework for Economic Development explains, internationalisation takes a number of forms, including "taking Scottish knowledge, skills and ideas to the rest of the world".

Elmwood College's specialist background in land-based and golf-related specialist subjects enables the College to be a major contributor to Scotland's Colleges' knowledge transfer agenda. The College delivers a range of specialist short courses aimed at rural and land-based businesses as well as more structured management courses, tailored towards individual business needs.

Elmwood College in China

Elmwood College has been working in China for over six years on a major educational project that aims to transfer expert knowledge on golf-related education to Chinese educational partners. This project is supported by the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, whose development committee has provided significant funding over the period.

As a result of this project, the College has formal partnership agreements in place with the seven institutions.

These partners are at different stages of development. All currently have or have had lecturers trained at Elmwood College. After undertaking training in Scotland, they return to China and under Elmwood's guidance, develop their own curriculum equivalent to Professional Development Awards and HNC/ HNDs in Golf Course or Golf Facility Management. These qualifications are branded as 'St Andrews International Golf Qualifications' and are owned and quality-controlled by Elmwood College.

A key area of economic development in which colleges play an important role is in supporting workforce development.
Improving Scottish Education, HMIE 2006.

Qin Yu was one of the first students to complete her HND in Golf Facility Management at Elmwood and, having qualified with merit in the summer has just taken up the position of Director of Golf Operations at the prestigious Suzhou Jinji Lake International Golf Club in Xian province in China.

While the number of students has dropped by 9% between 2001-02 and 2004-05, college activity has grown slightly. This is because of a shift to more intensive courses. Figure 3 overleaf breaks down the activity (in SUMs) in colleges by subject group from 1998-99 to 2004-05. It shows that Health Care/Medicine/ Health and Safety and Family Care/Personal Development/Personal Care and Appearance are the most popular areas of study. It also shows some large changes over the period. For example, Health Care/Medicine/Health and Safety has grown substantially as has Construction and Property. On the other hand, Business /Management /Office Studies has declined.

Figure 1: Student enrolments, students and SUMs by types of study, 2004-05 (Source; FES)

Figure 2: Student headcount, enrolments and SUMs, 1998-99 to 2004-05 (Source: FES)

Figure 3: Learners by subject superclass ( SUMs), 1998-99 to 2004-05 (Source: FES)

The sector employs over 21,000 staff (equivalent to over 12,000 full-time staff).

UHI Millennium Institute was designated as a higher education institution in April 2001. It provides access to university-level education through a distinctive educational partnership of colleges and research institutions (the UHI academic partners). Eight of Scotland's colleges are academic partners - Inverness College, Lews Castle College, Moray College, North Highland College, Orkney College, Perth College, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, and Shetland College. The figures elsewhere in this report and in the accompanying baseline report do not include higher education delivered by these partner colleges (because the education is accredited to UHI Millennium Institute rather than the college). That said, an understanding of the breadth of colleges' activities would be incomplete without acknowledging the role colleges play in the delivery of higher education in the Highlands and Islands.

Number of Full-Time Equivalent Students of Uhi Millennium Institute

« Previous | Contents | Next »