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Annex C: Inspiring Achievement

The Current and Future Profile of Staff in Scotland's Colleges

Background

1. Part of the remit of SLALE was to "examine issues relating to the staffing, learners and learning environments of Scotland's colleges to ensure quality learning experiences, including:

• whether there is evidence of an ageing workforce in colleges;
• disability, race, religion and belief, sexual orientation, age and gender equality for staff and learners; and
• the competitiveness of colleges as a place of work (including recruitment and retention issues)."

2. We accordingly looked at trends in relation to the age, gender and ethnicity of staff across the college sector and made comparisons with staff in the schools sector and HEIs. Unfortunately, we could not examine trends in relation to disability, sexual orientation, religion and belief of college staff as we were unable to obtain the necessary information within our allotted timescale.

3. We also looked at issues of human resource management and job satisfaction in Scotland's colleges.

Evidence

4. The SFEU was commissioned by the ASC and STUC, and funded by the SFC, to undertake a study examining staffing in Scotland's colleges. It was the first study of its kind. The final report was delivered to the ASC and STUC in October 2006 and presented to SLALE for discussion at its November meeting. It has been widely circulated within the sector, including a presentation to the Principals' Forum, and shared with members of the Review's Core Group. We wish to take this opportunity to thank the SFEU, SFC, ASC and STUC for sharing with us the findings from this study.

5. The other evidence described in this section was obtained from the SFC's Statistics Department and the Scottish Executive's Analytical Services Division.

Staff Contracts

6. In both colleges and schools, the majority of staff are on permanent full-time contracts. A more in-depth breakdown of college staff contracts shows that the majority of staff who work in colleges are part-time and that they are on temporary contracts.

7. According to headcount figures the majority of staff in colleges are involved in teaching. In HEIs, by comparison, there is an almost even distribution between those staff involved in non-teaching ⁶ or teaching ⁷.

8. The proportion of teaching to non-teaching full-time equivalent ( FTE) staff in colleges is 51:49. Meanwhile, there is a substantially larger majority (30%) of FTE staff in HEIs involved in teaching in comparison to non-teaching. This again highlights the large percentage of part-time college staff who are involved in teaching.

Distribution of staff contracts in Colleges & Schools - 2004/05

Chart 1

Gender

Staff gender distribution in Colleges - 2004/05
All Staff

Chart 2

9. The majority of cross-college staff are female. However, while there is an almost even split between the number of male and female lecturers/instructors/senior lecturers, the majority of staff in management positions across the college sector are male. In the HEI sector, the majority of academic staff are male. Similar to the college sector, there is an almost equal split in the number of males and females who are lecturers or researchers in the HEIs.

10. Although there are slightly more female staff who work full-time, there are more full-time males in a management position or working as a lecturer/instructor/senior lecturer. There are significantly more female staff than male staff who work part-time. However, part-time male staff are again more likely than part-time female staff to work in a management position.

11. Schools have a higher percentage of females in senior management positions than colleges.

Age

12. The largest age category across the three sectors is staff aged between 30 and 49. When comparing the sectors, the statistics show that the school sector has the largest percentages of staff aged under 29 and between 50 and 59; that HEIs have the largest percentage of staff aged 30-49; and that colleges have the largest percentage of staff who are aged over 60.

Distribution of staff ages in Colleges, HIEs & Schools - 2004/05
(does not include info refused/unknown)

Chart 3

13. When comparing the distribution of staff age by gender in the three sectors, it appears that:

1. colleges have a higher percentage of males aged over 50 than the other two sectors;
2. colleges have a higher percentage of females aged over 60 than the other two sectors;
3. HEIs have a higher percentage of younger males than the other two sectors;
4. in both schools and colleges, there is a higher percentage of female staff than male in the younger categories of staff; and
5. schools have a higher percentage of younger females than the other two sectors.

14. Looking at all college staff, there are 10 percentage points more females than males in the 30 to 49 age range. The over 60 age range is the only one containing more males than females.

15. In the youngest age category, there is a significantly higher proportion of non-teaching staff than teaching staff, especially amongst females.

16. There are more females than males who teach in the youngest two age ranges. The opposite is true for the oldest range. There are also more females than males who are non-teaching in every age range except 60+, which has an equal percentage of males and females.

17. By far the largest group is females aged 30-49 who are non-teaching. The second largest group is females who teach aged 30-49. The smallest groups are females who teach aged over 60 and non-teaching males aged under 29.

Ethnicity

18. The majority of staff who work in colleges, schools and HEIs are from white ethnic groups. HEIs have the highest percentage of staff from an ethnic minority background, as well as (by some distance) the highest percentage of staff whose ethnicity was recorded as 'unknown/refused'.

19. In colleges, there is an even balance between the percentage of white staff in teaching and non-teaching posts. This finding is repeated across the other two ethnicity categories. While in HEIs it appears that there are more white staff in teaching posts than non-teaching posts, this percentage may be skewed by the fact that the ethnicity of 37% of non-teaching staff is unknown/refused.

Data Collection on Staffing

20. Having examined the current processes of gathering data on staffing in Scotland's colleges, we believe that it is not always clear why these statistics are gathered and that they do not deliver value to data providers. With the exception of data on teaching qualifications, there is no evidence that outcomes from data collection are used for workforce planning purposes at a national or college level.

Equalities

21. The data gathered through the SFEU study revealed imbalances in the profile of staff in Scotland's colleges with respect to gender and ethnicity and for particular areas of work. Having examined all of the sources of information, we recognised that for some strands of equality, particularly for disability, there are difficulties in data gathering. Colleges indicate they have in place the full range of processes and procedures to prevent discrimination. They also have new duties with respect to gender, race and disability, including a positive duty to promote equality. It will clearly take time for recent changes in respect of the diversity of Scotland's population to be reflected in the college workforce.

Human Resource Management

22. The broad conclusion drawn from the SFEU study is that Scotland's colleges have a strong, committed workforce with sufficient skills to meet the needs of existing and future learners. We recognise that this is a good position in which to be.

23. According to the SFEU Profile Survey, colleges currently have few difficulties when recruiting staff. However, some colleges expressed concerns about whether or not they would have enough staff in ten years time. As the statistics regarding the average age of college staff show, some colleges have high numbers of staff who will be reaching retirement age over the next 5-10 years.

24. The study also showed that there is currently a low turnover rate of teaching staff. Rates quoted range from 2.4% for teaching staff to about 7-10% for permanent staff. While this may indicate that staff are not leaving the sector because they are satisfied with their jobs, two colleges responded that the low turnover rate meant that there was less opportunity to bring in "new blood".

25. 70% of respondents stated that they were satisfied with their present job. As part of this survey, staff members were asked about what attracted them to work in a college. Broadly speaking, their responses indicated that working in a college gives staff the opportunity to use their skills and abilities while committing to education as a means of changing lives. In turn, this presents opportunities for professional and personal development. Respondents also stated that they would remain in the sector because of the factors that attracted them in the first place. The survey concluded that this accounts for the high job satisfaction scores, and consequent low staff turnover levels, within the sector.

What attracted you to work in the public sector?

Chart 4

26. When respondents were asked if there was anything the college sector could do to increase staff satisfaction levels, some of the key categories of response were:

• working together (i.e. improved communications, improving college management, and providing more staff involvement in college decisions);
• working arrangements;
• providing rewards; and
• physical environment (further discussion on this issue is contained in Chapter 5 of Inspiring Achievement);

27. In moving forward, we believe that colleges, stakeholders and policy makers should work together to:

• sustain and improve levels of staff satisfaction by taking account of staff views on working together, working arrangements and providing rewards;
• build on the significance of line management arrangements identified by staff as a key factor in job satisfaction;
• respond to future demands created by a changing learner profile and changing stakeholder expectations; and
• ensure the availability of a pool of skills and talent ready to fill the gaps which will arise as existing staff retire.

28. In addition, work has been undertaken as part of the Review which will have human resource implications for Scotland's colleges. For example, there will be a need to take account of the human resource issues arising from the 'Futures' work-stream.

29. We believe that colleges will need good human resource strategies in order to build on their current strengths and to maintain and improve their contribution to Scottish life.

Specific Recommendations on the Current and Future Profile of Staff in Scotland's Colleges

We recommend that colleges evaluate, in the light of this report, the quality of their strategic human resource management processes and take any necessary action to ensure current and future challenges are known and addressed.

We recommend that the Scottish Funding Council should consider how its current review of staffing data collection processes can best take full account of equalities issues (we note that there may be a role for Equality Forward in this regard), add value to workforce planning activity and reflect relevant aspects of this report.

We recommend that college and staff representative bodies work jointly in undertaking regular, preferably annual, surveys on qualitative measures of satisfaction of staff working in colleges.

The Current and Future Profile of Learners in Scotland's Colleges

Background

30. Part of the remit of SLALE was to " examine issues relating to the staffing, learners and learning environments of Scotland's colleges to ensure quality learning experiences, including:

• disability, race, religion and belief, sexual orientation, age and gender equality for staff and learners". (emphasis added).

31. We accordingly looked at trends in relation to the disability, race, age and gender of learners across the college sector and made comparisons with learners in HEIs. Unfortunately, we were unable to obtain useful information relating to sexual orientation, religion and belief within our allotted timescale. These areas are therefore not included in our analysis.

Evidence

32. The evidence used in this analysis came principally from the SFC's Statistics Department and the Scottish Executive's Analytical Services Division. Some labour force survey statistics were also employed.

Type of Provision

33. According to the SFC's statistics ⁸, the number of enrolments at further education ( FE) level in Scotland's colleges has increased dramatically since 1994-95, although there has been a reduction since 2001. As outlined in Chart 6, there are now 398,120 FE enrolments, an increase of 88% since 1994-95. The majority of these enrolments are for vocational courses. In 2004-05 vocational enrolments accounted for 86% of the total. Vocational enrolments have increased by 82% since 1994-95, but have fallen by 12% since 2001-02.

FE Students at Scotland's Colleges 1994-95 to 2004-05

Chart 5⁹

Mode of Provision

34. Part-time study accounts for 84% of enrolments in Scotland's colleges ¹⁰. Of course, enrolments do not always equate to the number of students as some students enrol on several programmes in the same academic year.

35. Full-time courses accounted for 65% of all activity in 2004-05, as they did in 2003-04. However, over the same period, there was a reduction of 3% in part-time activity. Analysis by dominant programme group ( DPG) in 2004-05 shows that the three groups recording the highest levels of activity were Health (13%), Social Studies (13%) and Computing (11%), which together accounted for over a third (36%) of total activity. Within the overall figures, some DPGs attracted more activity, whilst some attracted less, than in 2003-04. Construction (up 8%) gained the most,

while the biggest reductions were in Science and Maths (each down 14%) and Business and Management (down 13%).

Gender

36. While females accounted for over half of overall SUMs activity in 2004-05, the percentages analysed by DPG highlight traditional gender-related educational choices. For example, males accounted for more than 90% of activity in Construction (92%), Engineering (96%) and Transport (95%), while females accounted for more than 80% of activity in Health (90%), Social Work (88%) and Office and Secretarial (82%). Despite this, there is some evidence of colleges trying to tackle the issue of gender-related course choices. For example, in the 'Unlocking Opportunity' report, there is a reference to Stevenson College Edinburgh's attempt to attract male students into their early years education and child-care courses.

College Students - Gender Distribution
(as a % of overall headcount)

Chart 6

37. Over the past six years, there have consistently been more female students than male attending college. Using headcount figures, the proportion of female to male students has changed from 55:54 to 57:43 in recent years. In terms of SUMs, the difference between the sexes has increased from 2% in 1999-2000 to 6% since 2001. While the proportion of males attending college has decreased over the six-year period by 2%, the proportion of females attending college over the same period has risen by 2%. This is in line with the experience of HEIs. Males, though, are more likely to undertake a course which involves more intensive activity; for example, a full-time course.

Age

38. There has been no real change to the age distribution of college students across the six year period. According to headcount figures, there has been a slight increase in the number of students aged 65 and over since 2001. Meanwhile, according to student SUMs, there has been a slight increase in the number of students aged 16-18 and a slight reduction in those aged 25-59.

College Students - Age (start of academic year)

Chart 7

39. As there is a difference in the way in which the statistics regarding age bands are collated, it is quite difficult to compare the age distribution of college students (headcount figures) with that of HEI students. However, the statistics do show that there have been no dramatic changes over the six year period. While the largest age band of students attending college is those aged between 25 and 59, the largest age band for HEI students is those aged under 21.

Age and Gender

40. Using the overall headcount data when comparing the data from 2000-01 and 2004-05, there has been very little change to the overall age of students. In both 2000-01 and 2004-05, female students tended to be older than their male counterparts.

College Students - Distribution by age & gender (2001-05)

Chart 8

41. Similarly, when using the SUMs data to compare the data from 2000-01 and 2004-05, there has been very little change to the overall age of students. There has only been a slight reduction since 2000-01 in the percentage of students aged 16-18 and 25-59. Again, in both 2000-01 and 2004-05, female students tended to be older than their male counterparts.

Ethnicity

42. Over the six-year period, the majority of students attending college have been from the white ethnic group. However, there has been a steady increase in the number of students who are non-white/other. The statistics also show that there has been a steady reduction since 1999-2000 in the percentage of information which is either unknown or refused.

43. A snapshot comparison between the two sectors shows that, as with college students, the majority of HEI students are 'white'. However, unlike colleges, there has been a slight decrease since 2003-04 in the number of 'white' students attending HEIs.

44. There is also a higher percentage of HEI students than college students who fall under the 'other' category. However, the number of 'other' students attending HEIs is decreasing while the number of 'other' students at colleges is steadily increasing.

College Students - Distribution by Ethnicity

Chart 9

Disability

45. Almost 13% of college students have a disclosed or identified disability. This figure includes those with a disclosed disability as well as those on special programmes or requiring extended learning support. This equates to about one fifth of all college activity (which takes into account length and intensity of the learning delivered). This compares with around 19% of the working age population who are estimated as having a disability ^11. Disabled people of working age with no qualifications are twice as likely to be unemployed as non-disabled people with no qualifications ¹².

Learners with disclosed disabilities at colleges, 2004-05
(Source: FES) - legend reads clockwise

Chart 10

The Future Profile of College Students

46. As part of the Review, a study was conducted into the effects of demography on student participation in FE and HE. This concentrated on mode of study and age. Bearing in mind that a significant proportion (25%) of HE in Scotland is delivered by colleges, the key findings of this study were as follows:

FE Enrolments

• The projected total number of FE enrolments falls from 393,468 in 2005-06 to 369,248 in 2019-20. This represents a fall of 6.2% in the total number of projected FE enrolments in that period.
• The age brackets expected to witness the largest decline in FE enrolments are those between the ages of 41 and 45, with each age bracket expected to show at least a 25% drop in enrolments between 2004-05 and 2019-20.
• The age brackets that were expected to witness the largest rises were those over the age of 60, with 28, 29 and 56 to 58 year olds also witnessing large increases.
• Despite these changes, young people will continue to offer the biggest contribution to FE enrolments. In 2004-05, 35% of all enrolments came from people aged 21 or younger. By 2019-20, this is projected to have dropped to 31%.
• Conversely, the contribution offered by people aged 50 and above is projected to increase from 19% to 24%.

FE Mode of Study

• There were 46,603 full-time FE enrolments in 2004-05 from Scottish students. This is projected to increase to 46,681 in 2005-06 before steadily declining to 40,800 in 2019-20. This means that the reduction in the projected number of full-time Scottish students enrolling in FE courses is 12.6% between 2005-06 and 2019-20.
• There were 345,291 part-time FE enrolments in 2004-05 from Scottish students. This is projected to increase to 346,786 in 2005-06 before falling to 328,228 in 2019-20. This represents a 5.3% decrease in part-time enrolments in FE courses from Scottish students.
• This indicates that full-time enrolments are likely to be more susceptible to change than part-time enrolments.

FE Student Headcounts

• It is common for individual students to enrol on more than one FE course in a given year. This means that the numbers relating to total enrolments in FE for a year will contain an element of double counting. Therefore, the effects of demographic changes on the number of student headcounts is worth considering.
• Unfortunately, the data matching process that is used to establish whether a student has enrolled more than once cannot be used for students who did not receive funding from the SFC, due to insufficient records. In 2004-05, just over 20,000 enrolments came from such students.
• There were an estimated 290,162 different Scottish students who enrolled in FE courses in 2004-05. This is projected to increase to 291,156 in 2005-06 before falling steadily to 272,463 in 2019-20. This represents a 6.4% reduction in the number of different Scottish students who enrol in FE courses between 2005-06 and 2019-20.
• This is largely the same as the projected 6.2% reduction in the total number of FE enrolments in the same time period, indicating that student headcounts are expected to fluctuate in a very similar way to student enrolments.

HE Students

• After increasing slightly each year in 2005-06 and 2006-07, the projected total number of HE students subsequently falls every year to 2019-20. The projected number of Scottish students in HE in Scotland in 2005-06 was 208,059 and this is expected to fall to 186,778 in 2019-20, a decrease of 10.2%.
• Young people will continue to offer the biggest contribution to HE enrolments. In 2004-05, 43% of all HE students were aged 21 or younger. By 2019-20, this is projected to have dropped to 40%.

Students in Higher Education Institutions

• HE students in Scotland comprise students from both higher education institutions ( HEIs) and colleges. The effects of demography on HE student numbers should be considered for both of these sectors.
• There were 156,166 Scottish HE students in HEIs in 2004-05. This number is projected to increase to 157,558 in 2005-06 and remain fairly constant until 2010-11 before falling sharply to 141,581 in 2019-20. This represents a 10.1% reduction in projected numbers between 2005-06 and 2019-20.

Students in Colleges

• There were 50,331 Scottish HE students in colleges in 2004-05. This is projected to increase to 50,501 in 2005-06 before eventually falling to 45,197 in 2019-20, a 10.5% reduction in that period.

47. There is not a considerably large difference between the expected reductions in the number of Scottish HE students from HEIs than there is from colleges. This would indicate that the age profile of Scottish HE students is fairly similar between HEIs and colleges.

Data Collection on Learners

48. Having examined the current processes of gathering data on learners in Scotland's colleges, we believe that it is not always clear why these statistics are gathered. We are also unsure about the extent to which this data is being used for strategic planning purposes at a national or individual college level and believe that this should be investigated by the Scottish Funding Council in collaboration with colleges and other stakeholders. These stakeholders should include Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise due to their interest in skills, training and careers support.

Equalities

49. Our investigation into the profile of college learners revealed imbalances with respect to gender and ethnicity and identified that, for some strands of equality, particularly for disability, there are difficulties in data gathering. We recognise that some steps are currently being taken to address these issues.

50. Colleges have indicated that they have in place the full range of processes and procedures to prevent discrimination and we acknowledge the work that they are undertaking to comply with the new duties with respect to gender, race and disability, and, in particular, the positive duty to promote equality.

51. We appreciate that the gendered uptake of courses has been a long-running issue. One way to promote greater gender balance within subjects is to work with school pupils via taster courses or Skills for Work courses. In the meantime, it is worth noting that the SQA are currently reviewing their course arrangements to ensure that they don't contain gender bias and that they are also considering how to promote gender equality more directly; for instance, through the use of publicity material. However, we believe that more needs to be done to resolve the gender imbalance within subjects.

52. The SFC recently published a report ¹³ that examines the significant and rapidly growing gap between levels of participation in higher education ( HE) among young men and women and investigates more closely gender issues for learners and staff in HE. The report concluded that " policy-makers and practitioners [needed] to understand the different experiences of men and women in education and beyond and, where unjustifiable barriers [limited] people's experience, ….find ways to dismantle them."

53. Glasgow Caledonian University and the Equal Opportunities Commission published research in 2005 entitled ' Jobs for the Girls and the Boys' ¹⁴, which looked into occupational segregation in the workforce. In response to this research, and concerns raised by the Equal Opportunities Commission, the Executive recently set up a cross-departmental working group to identify the key issues which impact on, and contribute towards, gender stereotyping in education, work and training, and to explore appropriate policy interventions. We would urge the Executive's working group to work closely with colleges, the SFC and other relevant stakeholders as it takes forward this role.

Specific Recommendations on the Current and Future Profile of Learners in Scotland's Colleges

We recommend that the Scottish Funding Council works together with Scotland's colleges, and other relevant stakeholders including Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, to consider how learner data can be collected and used more efficiently to help with strategic planning at a national and local level.

We recommend that the proposed review of data collection on learners should take full account of equalities issues. We note that there may be a role for Equality Forward in this regard.

We recommend that colleges, the Scottish Qualifications Authority ( SQA) and policy makers should continue to investigate ways in which the gender imbalance within college courses can be resolved. We expect that this will involve the Executive's cross-departmental working group engaging with colleges to review current good practice activity.

We recommend that colleges and policy makers take note of the information contained in this report on the current, and projected future, profile of college students with a view to ensuring that Scotland's colleges continue to effectively serve the needs of all sections of society.

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