Strengths
Aspects for improvement
How well do learners learn and achieve?
Learning, teaching, learner progress and outcomes
For learners in Scotland’s colleges, the overall quality of learning and teaching has remained high. Learners are enthusiastic about their learning experiences, showing high levels of engagement and motivation. Teaching staff apply their specialist knowledge effectively and generally keep their subject knowledge and vocational expertise up to date. This enables them to provide relevant and high-quality learning experiences that have strong industrial relevance.
Relationships between staff and learners are in almost all cases very positive and have contributed to an effective environment for learning. Learners display confidence in using a range of learning resources, including online and other ICT resources.
Staff encourage learners to reflect on their learning and set targets to improve their achievement. This promotes independence and learner ownership of learning goals. However, a few teaching staff need to use a wider range of learning and teaching approaches, including the application of ICT, more effectively in teaching. A few teaching staff also require to check learner understanding more regularly to provide them with appropriate feedback.
DISTRIBUTION OF QUALITY ELEMENT EVALUATIONS IN COLLEGE SECTOR SUBJECT AREAS 2005-2008
Retention and attainment rates are high across both further and higher education provision in most subject areas offered by Scotland’s colleges. Learner success on further education programmes has risen steadily over the last four years. Most learners progress into further study or employment.
In colleges offering a range of programmes in Gaelic language and Gaelic medium, student retention rates have been high and Gaelic learners achieve well.
Colleges have continued to make good progress in promoting learners’ wider achievements as well as their vocational skills. Learners’ personal and learning skills, core skills (including literacy and numeracy), skills for citizenship and employability are being developed well and increasingly recognised.
Almost all colleges use individual learning plans (ILPs) effectively to engage learners in reviewing and recognising their achievements. Such an approach helps learners develop confidence, responsibility and independence in their learning and to plan progression to work or further study. Success in local and national award schemes and competitions, and participation in college and community projects are recognised and widely celebrated in many colleges. However, learner achievements in core skills and other essential stills are not always recorded appropriately.
DISTRIBUTION OF QUALITY ELEMENT EVALUATIONS IN COLLEGE SECTOR SUBJECT AREAS 2005-2008
Curriculum
Colleges provide a flexible, accessible and relevant curriculum that meets the needs of individuals, communities and employers. A broad range of part-time and full-time further (SCQF levels 1 to 6) and higher (SCQF levels 7 to 11) education programmes provides good opportunities for entry at an appropriate level and progression to work or higher levels of learning.
Colleges also provide programmes specifically designed for and targeted at under-represented groups and hard-to-reach learners, such as those affected by rurality, deprivation, obligations to dependents and those with a previously unsuccessful experience of learning. Colleges which serve areas that have attracted asylum seekers and migrant workers provide relevant programmes in English for speakers of other languages (ESOL). ESOL programmes equip learners for employment and improve their ability to function in society. They also enable learners to progress to the mainstream curriculum and citizenship programmes. Many colleges make successful provision for international learners (from non-EU countries) with well-negotiated progression routes to university.
In Scotland’s colleges, the curriculum enables people to access and develop skills and capacities which improve the quality of their working, personal, family and community lives. Colleges apply flexible and creative approaches to accommodate the diverse needs and aspirations of their learners. They provide a range of entry points and pathways from access level to more advanced, degree and post-graduate level provision (SCQF levels 1 to 11). Increasingly, colleges enable learners to access programmes on a part-time basis through the workplace, online, and within their local communities, as well as on college campuses.
The collaboration of subject specialist staff with employers in planning, delivering and reviewing programmes contributes to colleges providing an innovative, responsive and relevant curriculum which integrates and contextualises essential transferable and vocational skills. In many cases, the development of essential skills is supported effectively by work-experience placements and involvement in community activities. Increasingly, colleges are also addressing the promotion of equality, fairness and positive attitudes to social and cultural diversity through the curriculum. They are also starting to incorporate learning activities which promote sustainability. Colleges are involved in local literacies partnerships and contribute in a range of innovative ways to the delivery of adult literacy and numeracy provision.
Many colleges provide curricula for school pupils, mainly from secondary schools but also from primary. This includes Skills for Work courses, Highers programmes and alternative provision for disaffected learners. Most of these programmes contribute to developing learners’ skills that underpin the four capacities of Curriculum for Excellence, and college staff are increasingly tracking and monitoring specific learning outcomes against these capacities.
All of Scotland’s colleges can now credit rate their own or other qualifications within the SCQF. Some colleges have made good progress in using the framework to accredit learners’ attainment in nationally recognised terms. This has included the accreditation of learning through professional development of their own staff.
Do colleges have a clear and appropriate sense of direction?
In almost all colleges, the Board of Management works well with the principal and senior managers to set the strategic direction of the college. Priorities, aims and objectives are well informed by a robust analysis of the economic and social environments in which the colleges operate. Plans address local and Government priorities and the needs of partner organisations and employers, who are often actively involved in the colleges’ planning processes. Generally, principals and their senior management teams communicate well with staff, share a clear vision with them and secure their commitment to it. However, a few colleges need to improve internal communication and target setting in relation to strategic and operational planning.
In almost all of Scotland’s colleges, management structures have been revised to empower operational managers and staff teams and to give them greater ownership of decision making. Increasingly, college staff contribute effectively to planning processes, supported by well-developed and, in the main, comprehensive quality systems that result in enhancements to the learner experience.
Operational leadership at all levels is generally effective and results in innovative improvements to the curriculum, learning and teaching and services for learners. Learners are increasingly being involved in decision making that impacts on the work and life of colleges.
DISTRIBUTION OF QUALITY ELEMENT EVALUATIONS IN THE COLLEGE SECTOR 2005-2008
How well do staff work with others (external and internal) to support learning?
Almost all colleges have established and maintain productive partnerships with other bodies such as local authorities, local enterprise companies, employers, schools and universities. Such partnership working improves progression routes for learners into and out of college programmes.
Almost all colleges have developed effective relationships with partner agencies, providing specialist support to widen learner participation and encourage progression from informal community-based learning to college programmes. There are good examples of college programmes successfully re-engaging disaffected young people in learning.
In almost all colleges, links with employers at strategic and operational levels ensure that programme content is relevant and consistent with current industry standards, and prepares learners well for employment, advancement or further learning.
In almost all colleges, support and teaching staff work well together to provide effective guidance and support for learners. This guidance and support includes academic, pastoral, vocational, and financial assistance, as well as highly specialised support for those with additional needs. Colleges work effectively with external partners to provide learners with further specialised support such as debt counselling and personal and crises counselling. They also provide support on health, addiction, social work and probation matters. They work closely with schools and social work services to ease transitions for young people with specific issues, such as having complex needs or leaving care.
Are learners and staff actively engaged in the college community and in enhancing the quality of learning, teaching and other services?
All colleges have a strategic commitment to internal review and most staff are actively involved in self-evaluation processes. Almost all staff demonstrate good levels of knowledge of quality procedures and are committed to improving the quality of the learner experience. Their self-evaluation and quality improvement activities generally lead to the enhancement of services for learners.
Most colleges have well-developed, robust systems for gathering and analysing performance data and the views of learners and other stakeholders. However, not all college staff make sufficient use of this information to devise or implement effective action plans to improve cases of low retention and attainment, especially when weaknesses relate to learning and teaching processes.
Many of Scotland’s colleges are already engaging effectively with their learners to bring about improvements at both programme and whole-college levels. Learner representation is well established in most colleges across a broad range of committees, forums and working groups. These arrangements enable learner views, expressed through questionnaires and in discussion, to form an important point of reference for college internal review activities. In most colleges, many actions taken and enhancements achieved demonstrate the impact of learner engagement across all curriculum and student-service areas, with a positive effect on the overall ethos of the college.
As the result of action plans drawn up throughout the past four-year review period, colleges have improved college-wide planning processes, improved their estates, extended their self-evaluation processes to include more support services, improved their staff review and development processes, and developed increasingly innovative approaches to learning and teaching. A few colleges still need to improve their planning processes by making targets more specific and measurable, and need to evaluate more effectively the impact of their action plans on the learner experience.
Generally, teaching staff are well qualified and have relevant, up-to-date vocational experience. The proportion of permanent college teaching staff with a professional teaching qualification has risen steadily over the last four years to above 90%. Staff review processes identify training needs well and CPD programmes ensure that almost all staff undertake effective development.
Do colleges have high expectations of all learners?
College learners place a high value on staff commitment to their progress and success in their programmes. Learner-staff relationships are purposeful and productive. In most colleges, staff engage collaboratively with learners to set, agree and monitor high standards of work and conduct. Colleges actively seek to create high expectations of success for learners on both further and higher education programmes, including for individuals whose previous experience of learning has been negative or whose current experience of school learning is not benefiting them sufficiently.
Colleges have a high proportion of learners from the most deprived data zones, from minority ethnic groups and with declared disabilities. Most of the college curriculum, particularly at further education level, incorporates activities and experiences which build confidence and independence in learning. In many colleges, well-considered induction and preparatory programmes also help learners to prepare for learning.
Effective partnership working and links with external agencies enable staff to support learners effectively, building learners’ capacity to identify and pursue more challenging learning goals. The widespread use of ILPs, in which learners and staff agree realistic but demanding learning targets, raises the aspirations and expectations of both parties.
Colleges work well with local schools and other agencies to plan provision for their most vulnerable learners. Programmes specifically developed for learners with additional needs continue to be delivered particularly well in most colleges, and learners make very good progress and achieve well. In more than a few areas, the demand for college places exceeds the funding available to colleges to meet this need. Facilities, including assistive technologies and accommodation, generally provide well for learners with additional support needs.
Colleges have been successful in building the confidence of individuals and developing their skills to enable them to become lifelong learners.