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REVIEW OF SCOTLANDS COLLEGE
WORKING GROUP: THE DIFFERENCE COLLEGES MAKE
Minutes of Meeting
Held at 10.30am on 31st October 2006
At Scottish Executive, Meridian Court , Glasgow
Attendees:
John Burt- Angus College (Chair)
Gerald Wilson- FAED (Secretariat)
Col Baird- Reviews Team FAED
Mary Senior- STUC
Linda McTavish- Anniesland College
Karen Corbett- HMIE
Audrey Robertson- FAED
Carl Bow- Scottish Enterprise
Gordon Craig- Scottish Funding Council
Julie Gilstrap- Association of Scottish Colleges
Sean Stronagh- Communities Scotland
1. Welcome and Apologies
John Burt welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Apologies were noted from:
Christina Potter- Elmwood College
Gordon Rodgers- SQA
Colin MacBean- ASD, Scottish Executive
Adam Gaines- Equalities Co-ordinating Group
Brian Lister- Cumbernauld College
Kevin McIver- PCS
Jacqui Hepburn- Sector Skills Development Agency
2. Note of Meeting on 15 September, Including Update on Action Points
2.1 These minutes were agreed with the following changes being made:
Mary Senior wanted to let the group know that there had been an mis-understanding with of the action points from the last meeting (6c). This will be discussed under Agenda Item 4.
6.20- European Funding- Policy Paper- Gordon was not aware to submit a paper as a Consultation came out only last week. Minutes also to be changed to 'Final' rather than 'Next'.
6.27- bullet on 'Reverse Articulation'. This should be more like Progression and Articulation. It was agreed that this should be taken out.
2.2 Action Points:
Item 5: Col to revise paper of discussion questions that are to be used at an afternoon session of the "Unlocking Opportunity " conference: Done
Item 6a: Paper A - Gordon Craig to re-draft paper and submit to Group in time for next meeting: Done
Item 6c: Paper C - Col to circulate John's e-mail on partnership working,
to the group: Done
Item 6c: Paper C - Mary to revise paper in light of feedback received and submit to group in time for next meeting: to be discussed under item 4
Item 6e: Paper E - Gordon Craig to amend paper in light of feedback received and submit to Group in time for next meeting: Discussed
Item 6 Volunteering paper Linda to revise paper in light of feedback received; Col to circulate Linda's revised paper to relevant Executive divisions including those dealing with voluntary organisations and funding for learners, and provide feedback at the next meeting: Not changing this it has been reviewed and will submit it as seen. The inclusion of a paragraph about volunteering as a staff development activity was discussed but it was concluded that it should be a separate short paper.
Item 8: Gerald to make arrangements for next two meetings of working group: Done- the last meeting of the group will take place on the 28th November 2006 at Glasgow Metropolitan College. It will be a longer meeting this time, starting at 10am and finishing around 4pm.
3. Unlocking Opportunity Conference
3.1 John mentioned that the group should be pleased with the report that it had produced. The report has been well received both inside and outside the sector. It will be a good base document for the other groups in the review to go on from. John also mentioned that he had been asked by some boards to go and present the document to them.
Col then went into a little more detail about the conference and what happened on the day. Over 100 people attended the event- and it was attended by people outside the college sector. It was good that the DFM was able to attend the event also, and give the Key Note Speech. There was very positive feedback about the 13 case studies that were there on the day too.
The document is now seen as a reference document by the division. Col thanked everyone for their help with this.
Karen Corbett than spoke about the lack of people impact on the FE Sector. All members of the Enterprise and Culture Committee received a copy of report and summary.
We are looking to get the Report as far and as wide as possible, so we are happy to receive names and addresses of who the document should be sent to.
Around the date of the launch, colleges were asked to put an article in the local press to make people in the community aware that this was taking place, and a report would be coming out of it.
Colleges have been given 10 copies of the Report; they should be asked it they would like more as they are the main players in this. More than happy to send these out and if another print run is needed then we can go ahead with one.
Action: ASC to find out how many copies of the Report colleges need.
3.2 The final part of the conference looked at what differences the colleges could make. Mary mentioned that she was running one of the workshops and it was brought up that things are going forward due to funding available at the moment.
Action: A report is to be produced on Case Studies in Unlocking Opportunity which have been a success without increased levels of funding.
Paper 17: Suggestions on Differences Colleges Could Make
3.3 College marketing Group- If you took the school students that are currently in S3 and S4, then these are the future competitors for World Skill Olympics in 2011.
The group was asked if there was anything that we missed in the Unlocking Opportunity report? Obviously these could not now be added to 'Unlocking Opportunity' but could now be considered for inclusion in 'The Differences Colleges Could Make'.
Various things mentioned;
· include Sector Wide IT System (this was put back due to colleges having different requirements.
· Fee Waiver- this has come from one of the Breakout sessions at the Unlocking Opportunity Conference. This is the responsibility of the SFC to decide this.
· Student Support has not been touched on, Part Time and Full Time has become blurred. All have different ideas of support. It was noted that where there has been good support available to students, they tend to do better.
A conversation then ensued about student funding.
· Rural Issue- remote funding - there is inadequate funding for what it involves has scope to grow.
· Not seen anything in second report on Adult Learning in College. Upskilling of adults needs to be collected in topic headings.
4. Update on Background Papers
European Funding
4.1 We have already covered EU funding under action points, please see under Paragraph 2.1.
Pensions
4.2 Gordon asked colleagues to see what pensions look like. If standard rate of increase would not make a great deal of difference, and this all depends on salary scales. Core funding to colleges has gone up, and pension costs have gone up too. There is too much detail in the paper- just need to take out the main points of the paper; do colleagues have any idea what they would like to be taken out? Gordon will look at comment he has already seen from Colin McBean.
The table does not look at the number of people, only percentages have been included. One diagram would be useful to summarise which would make for easier reading. It was suggested that we could look at £1 and see how much pensions would be down the line.
Pension responsibility fall under 'pressures' for college - we should not forget however, that it is the same in other sectors. Lifelong Learning is key in Scotland.
Partnership Working
4.3 There have been 2 papers on this, one from Mary Senior and one from John Burt, which was circulated round the group by Col shortly after the last meeting of the group. There was discussion on whether these papers should be put together or remain as two papers. It was agreed that they would stay as two stand alone papers.
Knowledge Transfer- There is currently a paper being done by the Funding Council, which will not be available until December-January. There was a conference on Knowledge Transfer the day before this meeting with all colleges. This will probably not be getting looked at until SR2011.
Volunteering
4.4 CPD- there maybe should be a paper that goes into the staffing group.
Following from our earlier discussions Linda has initiated that she is happy to write a staffing CPD on volunteering if needed.
It was noted that there has been moves in terms of qualification for volunteering and maybe a curriculum for excellence.
On a relevant point, John mentioned that Gary Malone has written a very interesting paper for Broadcast Magazine.
Action Point: Col should get in touch with him to discuss this.
5. Draft Report
5.1 The report will be ready by the end of November, which is quite a tight deadline. Would like to discuss any thoughts on the draft report, which was circulated with the papers for this meeting, or anything that members think is missing from the report. This will be an internal report, which will go to the Core Group, and maybe be published in February.
Structure: Are there going to be figures in the paper or will it be left blank? This is why Annex B has been put in. There will be illustrations to let people use there own formulas be used. There should be further options of the percentages, rather than just giving 20% and 80%, should have 20%, 40%, 60% and 80%.
Other points that were raised at the meeting included:
· Options of costs
· The Executive are doing currently preparing a report on ESOL demand.
· Can we cost low skill, low pay?
· NHS- up to 50% of workers go?
· Public value needs to be added.
· Knowledge transfer- already in document and signposted to something else.
· Must have Adult Learning- encouraging the reluctant adult.
· Maybe Fresh Talent should be mentioned in International part of document.
Main points of report:
· Skills for Work
· ESOL
· NEET
· Employability
· Health/Social Care
Action Point: There are three levels of support, at the final meeting of the group we can discuss the levels to see if the should be changed.
5.2 The issue of health/social care will become a big issue for the colleges in the next three years and beyond.
Action Point: Gordon will have a look and see how much funding has gone into these courses through Supply and Demand statistics.
5.3 Gender/Equality- colleges need to consider how they reach out.
Under Executive priorities, it could be stated what colleges are currently doing (the same as in the 'Unlocking Opportunity' Report.)
Tailored support for learners- we do need to look at the diversity of learners. This can not be costed as you don't know what it really is. Could these stats not be done as a percentage instead to make it easier reading? It will also need to be stated that it is not just the college who provide this.
Action point: Need also to look at the trend of students with additional needs- Scottish Funding Council to look at. The only thing this will not pick up is the people who require help during the middle of the course.
Concluding Remarks
5.4 As mentioned the next meeting will be a lot longer, with this paper being in final draft for the next meeting. The recommendations will be left blank at this stage and discussed at the next meeting.
Meeting brought to an end.
Gerald Wilson
ETLLD-FAED
13 November 2006