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Executive summary and list of recommendations
The key messages from this report are about positioning and role, leadership, collaboration and partnership, responsiveness, and modernising learning and teaching.
One thing is certain, none of the scenarios we have described in this report will actually come about exactly as we predict. However, imagining our colleges in very different future environments helps us:
- to think through what is needed so that colleges can excel in any of a likely range of futures;
- to test out the possible impact of policies over a longer timescale than is usual in day-to-day strategy development; and
- to recognise that broad social, economic and environmental factors will shape the colleges of the future far more than small changes to procedures, funding mechanisms, or the problems of today.
Colleges will never be monopoly suppliers so they will need to earn their position as providers of choice. This is our aspiration. Colleges' greatest strength is their ability to respond rapidly and effectively to the needs of their communities. This needs to be maintained and strengthened. But colleges do need a clear environment to work within, and clear roles for themselves and for their partners - learners, employers, local agencies, national bodies - in this endeavour. The Scottish Executive should work to develop and clarify these roles and relationships.
We hope people find this report of use in developing their own thinking about the future.
On positioning and role, it is recommended that:
- Scotland's colleges, the Scottish Executive and Scottish Funding Council should aspire to make colleges vocational education and training providers of choice for learners and employers.
- The key roles for Scotland's colleges should be to:
- provide vocational education and training related to employment in response to national, regional and local needs;
- provide positive and clear routes for learners into employment or into higher education institutions; and
- support learners to develop their knowledge and skills so that they can feel confident in their work and in their lives.
- The Scottish Executive should work with stakeholders to more clearly define the roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders in the publicly funded tertiary education system. Funding and regulatory systems should then be aligned with these roles to enable colleges and other players to deliver.
Onleadership, it is recommended that:
- Colleges should lead by example, in their communities, by demonstrating clear strategic leadership.
- Colleges, the Scottish Executive and Scottish Funding Council should promote and support the ongoing development of adaptive leadership capacity in the tertiary sector.
- Colleges should continue to work together to develop a cohort of potential future leaders.
- Colleges, the Scottish Executive, Scottish Funding Council and other stakeholders should ensure that strategic, funding and regulatory regimes best support the development of adaptive leadership capacity in the tertiary sector.
On collaboration and partnership, it is recommended that:
- Colleges should be regarded as key strategic partners in their communities alongside other local stakeholders.
- The Scottish Executive should develop appropriate new models of partnership, adapt systems to support these new models, and clarify its expectations of those involved in partnerships.
- Colleges and other stakeholders should strengthen their capacity to work in partnership and should continue to develop networks and work together to deliver their individual and collective aims and objectives. Organisations that support Scotland's colleges should promote this at a national level.
- Colleges and other relevant stakeholders should consider further opportunities to share data and infrastructure.
On responsiveness to learners and employers, it is recommended that:
- Colleges should be aware of and respond to demand for learning from learners and employers and different segments of these markets, consistent with colleges' aims and objectives.
- Further work should be undertaken to consider how best to improve the effectiveness and timeliness of market intelligence, including better local interpretation of national and regional data, to ensure more informed decisions by colleges and learners.
On modernising learning and teaching, it is recommended that:
- Colleges should, within the resources available to them, provide attractive modern learning environments and ensure that the location, timing and method of learning meet the changing needs of future learners and employers.
- Colleges, supported by the Scottish Funding Council, should develop and evaluate their practices by capitalising on the ongoing development of research into the human mind and its implications for learning and teaching.
- Colleges should continue to exploit the opportunities presented by information and communication technology to support a blended approach to learning and teaching.
On next steps, it is recommended that:
- The Scottish Executive should initiate early work to: clarify the positioning and key roles of colleges and other stakeholders with an interest in the tertiary sector; develop regulatory and funding regimes to support this; and strengthen adaptive leadership capacity.
- The Scottish Executive, colleges and key agencies should continue to use futures work as a strategic development tool.
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