Spending the best part of a year reviewing Scotland’s education and skills system has been, fittingly, a learning experience.
I found a system that is creaking. Our schools, colleges and universities are faced with differing political priorities, parental demands and business expectations. They are buffeted by financial pressures and having to adapt to extraordinary technological and societal change. All this whilst focussed on priority one: delivering a complex suite of learning to an incredibly diverse set of learners.
Yet, despite what can appear an impossibly difficult context, I found a system with extraordinary resilience, staffed by people with a deep passion for getting things right (even if they have to spend too much time hearing from those who think they’re getting it wrong).
I ended my review in no doubt that Scotland has all the ingredients of a world class education and skills system. And no ingredient is more important than our colleges. The time I spent with those at the heart of our college system left an indelible mark.
Of course, this positivity stands in stark contrast to recent headlines. Financial troubles and industrial action have dogged the sector. Yet, I found a college system very much alive, energized and delivering remarkable things for people of all ages and backgrounds.
Scotland has all the ingredients of a world class education and skills system. And no ingredient is more important than our colleges.
There is a burning financial platform just now. However, I would argue it is a symptom of a wider disease: a failure to value a diversity of learning in Scotland.
Educational success remains narrowly defined. Too often still, a ‘best path’ is laid out for young people; collect Highers or A Levels and go to university. If you don’t achieve that you’re left with what feels like a range of second-best options, including college.
This definition of success is not only outdated and simplistic, it is deeply damaging. It stigmatises other valuable vehicles for learning and, worst of all, it leaves thousands of young people believing they have failed before their life has really begun.
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Scotland can’t afford this. Our working age population is shrinking, faster than other parts of the UK. It has never been more important to unlock the full potential of all our people. However, doing so requires us to treasure the diversity of educational institutions in Scotland. That means ensuring that neither funding, political targets nor measures of success perpetuate a damaging bias towards one type of learning over another.
It isn’t just outdated attitudes or bias that hold our colleges back. In many ways, they are also a victim of their own success. The variety of activity in the modern college makes it difficult to succinctly communicate what they do. They deliver everything from Foundation Apprenticeships with schools to diplomas, trade qualifications, professional certifications, masters degrees and doctorates. Over 20,000 courses in all. As a result, an elevator pitch doesn’t come easily.
Yet, despite existing in a world of slogans and soundbites, recognising this breadth and the more complex story is key to understanding the value of colleges and to long term investment in them.
The diversity of college provision is also matched by the diversity of student. Of the 250,000 students who will attend college in Scotland this year, more than 40% are over 25. A reminder that learning doesn’t happen at one point in time, it’s a lifelong activity. A third of college students come from Scotland’s most deprived communities; around 15% have a disability. More than 17,000 are from black and ethnic minority backgrounds and 3,000 are experienced in the care system. Put simply, colleges deliver education and skills development to parts of Scotland other institutions just don’t reach.
Their role as a catalyst for economic development is also underplayed. The relationship with Scotland’s business base provides a talent pipeline and ensures teaching provision is relevant to changing industries. A long way from our bigger cities, there are businesses working with local, regional and rural colleges. It is a recipe for success.
As the business community gets its head round transformational change, from the growth of artificial intelligence to the transition to net zero, the need to reskill and retrain the workforce is obvious. Colleges are central to this. It is no coincidence that when there is corporate fallout in Scotland, like Michelin’s plant closure in Dundee, it is the local college around the table to alleviate the workforce crisis.
The origins of current pressures on colleges lie in the longer-term failure to appreciate them for the prized assets they are. Scotland’s economy will look radically different in a decade. It requires a reinvention of some industries and the creation of others. To fuel that, we need diverse people with diverse skills who think and learn in a diversity of ways. It will be staggeringly obvious in a decade how important colleges were to this journey. The focus now should be on ensuring they are there for the ride.
James Withers is the author of Independent Review of Scotland’s Skills System
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