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Chapter 2: Executive summary
A. ISSUES
There are really three key elements to successful learning:
1. the people who teach, and support learning and teaching, i.e. the staff;
2. the people who learn, i.e. the learners; and
3. the places where learning occurs, i.e. the learning environments.
Our group - the Staffing, Learners and Learning Environments group (or SLALE for short) - has looked at all of these elements, both individually and collectively. We have come to the conclusion that, while there is much to be proud of at present, there remains scope for ongoing improvement. We further believe such improvement to be vital, not only for the future of Scotland's colleges but also for the economic and social wellbeing of Scotland as a whole.
Staff
College staff play an absolutely crucial role in ensuring that learners identify and achieve their goals. In turn, this benefits society and, indeed, the college itself. We know that college staff bring dedication, belief and commitment to their varied roles. However, it is also of vital importance that all staff in colleges are appropriately trained and qualified and have the opportunity to continually update and expand their knowledge and skills. Not only will this benefit the learners and the college organisation; it will substantially increase the satisfaction of the staff members themselves.
Shaping and moulding people is perhaps the most challenging task of all in life (just ask a parent), and it is therefore imperative that the systems, and organisational cultures, are in place to adequately support college staff in promoting learner development. This, through the medium of our Professional Development Sub-group, has been one of the major concerns of SLALE.
Learners
Learners are, or should be, at the heart of the college system. We believe that everyone who enters a college, whatever their background, has the potential to achieve more in life. While a substantial part of the motivation for this must always come from the individual student, our group believes that college staff, facilities and even procedures can also play a very significant role. That, above all, is why we have titled our report 'Inspiring Achievement'.
College is a rewarding and satisfying experience for the vast majority of learners. Quite simply, we want that to be the case for all of them.
In carrying forward our work on learners, we have benefited from the fact that the National Union of Students ( NUS) Scotland (the umbrella body for students' associations in both colleges and higher education institutions) held joint chairmanship of SLALE along with the Scottish Trades Union Congress ( STUC). This helped to ensure that the learner experience was given an appropriate degree of prominence in both our discussions and outcomes. It also enabled us to access some relevant good practice from college student associations, which we have incorporated in this report.
Learning Environments
The final critical element in inspiring achievement is the actual learning environment, be it room, workshop, theatre, library or some form of virtual space. How a learning environment is designed can have a significant impact on how, and indeed how effectively, learning is conducted. We are sure that many readers will be able to relate to the de-motivating effects on learners of, for example, squeaky blackboards, persistent draughts and poorly designed seating. We clearly expect much more from the learning environments of the 21 st century.
Colleges, with their wide range of vocational, life skills and academic interests, not to say diverse client groups, have always been amongst the most challenging of institutions to equip. Changes such as the growth in ICT, new laws on accessibility, increasing concern for the environment and the desire to learn and teach in new ways, mean that the challenge is perhaps greater than ever. For these reasons, combined with the current backlog of estates projects in the sector, we have devoted considerable time and thinking as a group to the question of how Scotland's colleges may be better equipped for their, and the nation's, future needs. In doing so, we have been assisted by the expertise of the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council ( SFC), as well as by individual members of the group who have had direct experience of college estates projects.
Conclusion
'Unlocking Opportunity' 2 highlighted the ways in which Scotland's colleges contribute to economic prosperity and help to tackle poverty and disadvantage. It identified the high quality of learning taking place within Scotland's colleges and the equally high level of student satisfaction with the quality of their overall learning experience. As a group, we are pleased to endorse - and build upon - this key outcome of the Review.
The following section of this summary features our key recommendations for improvement in the areas of staffing, learners and learning environments for Scotland's colleges. We strongly believe that these recommendations, should they be endorsed and properly implemented, will enable Scotland's colleges to inspire even greater levels of achievement in the years to come.
B. RECOMMENDATIONS
The key recommendations of SLALE are as follows:
STAFF
Continuing Professional Development ( CPD) for All Staff
1. We strongly endorse the positive role which CPD can play in achieving broader objectives of quality improvement in colleges, through its impact on efficiency and effectiveness of college processes, on capacity building and promoting flexibility, and on the quality of students' learning experience.
2. We recommend the following as shared goals for the sector:
a. all staff in Scotland's colleges engage in systematic reflection of how they contribute to the work of colleges in supporting learners;
b. all colleges provide appropriate opportunities for all members of staff to upgrade or improve their professional skills; and
c. all colleges provide opportunities for members of staff to gain appropriate qualifications relevant for their professional role.
3. We recommend that all full-time staff in colleges should fulfil, as a minimum expectation, six days of CPD a year, and that colleges should determine and implement appropriate proportionate expectations for part-time, fixed-term and temporary staff. The recommendation should be applied equitably, and in a way which does not disadvantage staff who are not on full-time permanent contracts.
4. We recommend that the Scottish Executive should commission an independent review into the future oversight of staff development activity for all college staff, with a view to taking forward its findings by Spring 2008. The review should consider:
- How this oversight might best be delivered;
- What, if any, alternative arrangements might need to be put in place; and
- Appropriate linkages to other professional and membership bodies.
[The STUC and NUS Scotland view is that the existing PDF should have its remit extended to take responsibility for all the CPD needs of all staff in the sector. The Association of Scotland's Colleges ( ASC) and Scottish Further Education Unit ( SFEU) believe that, given the long-term implications, any decision should be informed by the findings of the independent review.]
5. We recommend that the Scottish Executive ensures that the Scottish Funding Council, in distributing any additional funding for staff training, does so on an equitable basis, which ensures that colleges who have previously invested in staff development are entitled to funding for other staff development opportunities.
6. We recommend that the Scottish Funding Council also considers whether (and, if so, how) individualised staffing returns can be used to monitor and evaluate Initial Teacher Training and all staff CPD activity across the sector.
7. We recommend that all agencies with responsibilities for quality should give due consideration to encouraging good practice in the effective deployment of CPD.
8. We recommend that statements arising from SLALE's consideration of CPD should be framed in terms of all staff, and should not emphasise distinctions between groups of staff with different professional responsibilities.
9. We recommend that colleges examine the benefits of using external monitoring processes, such as Investors in People (IiP) or the European Foundation for Quality Management ( EFQM) Excellence Model, as a means of reviewing the effectiveness of their policies on staff development and CPD.
10. We recommend that the Scottish Executive, working in partnership with key stakeholders, monitors the roll out of Union Learning Representatives ( ULRs) in colleges and considers commissioning a systematic study of their impact once the scheme has become fully embedded.
11. We recommend that colleges develop and deploy CPD recording and monitoring procedures for all staff. This is likely to entail the use of logs, linked to the SFC's proposed individualised staffing return, and designed to measure both formal and informal CPD activity. Colleges should also, as part of this work, record and evaluate the impact of CPD on enhancing the quality of the learning experience, and record and monitor CPD costs. We also recommend that relevant communities of practice consider ways of measuring and benchmarking the contribution of informal CPD to the achievement of college CPD policies.
12. We recommend that colleges consider ways of developing vocational and professional updating activity for teaching staff, taking into account the Scottish Funding Council pilot and the Northern Ireland experience (see paras. 3.29-3.30).
13. We believe that further investment in CPD is justified and recommend that this be applied through an overall increase in the unit of resource for colleges rather than through earmarked funding for staff development.
Teacher Training for New Lecturers
14. We recommend that implementation of the recommendations on teacher training for new lecturers be phased over three years, with an estimated average annual cost of approx. £5.4m ( i.e. total estimated costs of £16.2m over three years).
15. While the amount of remission available to staff is a decision for individual colleges, it is worth noting that the estimated annual cost of phasing in the recommendations relating to the Teaching Qualification (Further Education) [ TQ( FE)] is based on a calculation which includes the equivalent of 240 hours of remission over the duration of the course.
16. While the recommendations apply only to new lecturers, we would encourage colleges to continue to support existing staff to gain relevant Professional Development Awards ( PDAs) and/or TQ( FE).
A Code of Practice
17. We recommend that Scotland's colleges (where appropriate) develop, and keep under review, some form of code of practice (or equivalent). [Note: we believe it would be neither desirable nor feasible to impose an explicit code of practice (or equivalent) on the sector.] Some examples of what a code may encompass, and what it may be used for, are outlined in Annex E.
18. We recommend that where colleges do decide to introduce or review a code of practice (or equivalent), they should do so in consultation with staff, trade unions, management and boards of management. They should also explicitly consider the importance of meeting the educational and welfare needs of learners.
The Delegation of Functions Undertaken By The Scottish Executive's Lifelong Learning Directorate ( LLD)
19. We recommend that LLD should continue, for the time being, to support the work of the Professional Development Forum and to approve TQ( FE) programmes. We note that it may be appropriate to reconsider this arrangement in the light of future developments.
The Current and Future Profile of Staff in Scotland's Colleges
20. 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.
21. 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.
22. 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 Further Modernisation and Improvement of Learning and Teaching Methods in Scotland's Colleges
23. We recommend that the SFC considers commissioning a report examining, with reference to relevant sections of the RoSCO Strategic Futures report, the major future (short and medium term) issues affecting learning and teaching within the sector. While the scope and purpose of the work should be agreed with key stakeholders, a central outcome of this work should be a list of key recommendations for colleges, their staff and all relevant agencies.
LEARNERS
Improving the Overall College Experience for Learners
24. For Scotland's colleges to continue to improve the quality of service they deliver to learners, they should:
- increase student, staff and board of management awareness of the benefits of effective student representation;
- be aware of the factors which prevent learners from participating fully in college life, and seek to support learners to address them where they can;
- attempt to foster a philosophy of inclusive learner development;
- increase the assistance available to students to enable them to properly represent their fellow learners;
- attempt to broaden awareness of the effective use of proper channels of communication throughout the college; and
- attempt to broaden awareness of the effective use of feedback from learners.
25. We recommend that colleges and students' associations make use of the information, case studies and toolkits within this report and its annexes (particularly F and G), as well as relevant sections of the RoSCO Accountability and Governance report, to ensure that learners are properly represented and continue to have a positive learning experience.
The Current and Future Profile of Learners in Scotland's Colleges
26. 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.
27. 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.
28. 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.
29. 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.
LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
30. We recommend that sufficient capital funding is allocated to realise the benefits that can be derived from improved estates, and acknowledge that continuing investment is needed to clear the maintenance and improvement backlog and sustain new estates and refurbished campuses. In order to achieve this, annual investment averaging around £150m would be required for a number of years.
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