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4. Conclusions and next steps
4.1 There are some priorities for early action which would have a major influence on the long-term outcomes and provide a sound basis for driving other actions. Clarification of the positioning and roles of colleges and other stakeholders with an interest in the tertiary sector, developing regulatory and funding regimes to support this, and the strengthening of adaptive leadership capacity should be the top three priorities for early work. The Scottish Executive should initiate further dialogue with stakeholders to determine how best to take forward these strategic recommendations as priorities.
4.2 The use of scenarios as a strategic tool has been invaluable in raising some important issues about the future challenges that colleges are expected to face. Consideration of the implications of scenarios has allowed us to think beyond current problems and to consider what strategies we will need to adopt to respond to future challenges. Our experience is that simply reading the scenarios is not sufficient; we have to engage in the scenarios in an active way to "internalise" them so that we can think "outside the box" to identify how we can be better equipped to meet future challenges. We suggest that this futures work should be continued by:
- the Scottish Executive supporting an ongoing programme of futures work involving all the players to build capacity for concerted action in future; and
- the college sector integrating futures work into their professional development programme for both current and future leaders.
4.3 The scenarios might be used to test the recommendations of the other three workstreams. They could be used to consider policy options in the future. They could also be used as a strategic tool by individual Principals to test the robustness of their individual corporate strategies to ensure that they are adaptable and robust in the face of future challenges.
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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