Association of Scottish Colleges
Annual Conference - 11 June 1999
Speech By Mr McLeish
Thank you Chairman for those kind words of introduction. My associations with further education go back a long way. As Chairman of the Further Education Committee of Fife Regional Council between 1978 and 1982 and as Leader of the Council between 1982 and 1987, I had close links with the 4 FE colleges in Fife and with the sector generally.
I am delighted to renew those links with further education. You have a friend "at Court" who shares with you a common set of goals and aspirations. I will drive you hard but, in turn, you can expect my support in meeting the challenges ahead in driving the Partnership's enterprise and lifelong learning agenda forward.
We are breaking new ground in Scotland in linking enterprise with lifelong learning. We have stressed the vital importance of education, education, education. Enterprise is as important and it is right that we should link enterprise and lifelong learning policies so closely. But if we are to realise the concept of Scotland as a learning nation, we will need to ensure that all parts of our society have access to learning opportunities throughout their lives and see the wisdom of and value of those opportunities. I want to turn rhetoric into reality.
That is why I am particularly pleased to have been invited to address your Conference today, so soon after my appointment as Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning, because further education already plays and should increasingly play an absolutely key role in advancing our enterprise and lifelong learning agenda.
Brian Wilson addressed your Association's last 2 annual conferences. On both occasions I understand that the overwhelming message which the Association conveyed to him was that the sector was under-funded; and that that was hindering its playing a full part in transforming Scotland into a learning nation with a fully developed knowledge economy.
The result was a comprehensive spending review settlement for further education which will see an extra £214 million invested in FE over the next 3 years, increasing annual Government grant by over 35% to £0.4 billion. The intention is, first of all, to modernise the sector, second to stabilise it financially and thirdly, to fund a widening access agenda.
In addition, the Partnership agreement for the Scottish Parliament signals increased funding from next year in the area of loans for mature part-time students on low incomes, and access funds.
So, as Government has moved further education visibly centre-stage in the context of its educational, economic and social policies, it has also put in place the resources to enable the sector to deliver what is expected of further education for the future. Let me assure you that if we had not been persuaded that the further education sector could, to use a phrase, 'do the business' and more, we should not have placed such faith in and reliance on yourselves and the colleges. I think that that is the greatest statement of our confidence in your ability. We shall want a return on every £ of the taxpayers' money invested in Scotland's FE colleges. And I mean right across the board, in money, human resources and capital terms.
My vision for Scotland is of a confident nation, striving always to be world class, and aspiring always to improve, and to be and to compete with the best. A healthy society and a successful economy are those which fully recognise the positive value of knowledge, understanding, competence and skills. That is why education is the Scottish Executive's top priority. We see its importance in the widest context. Further education does boost the competitiveness of Scotland, its businesses and people. But lifelong learning is also about personal development and participation in the broadest sense - in our society, our economy, our communities and our culture. I use the word "our" to emphasise the shared nature of these experiences and aspirations.
This is a vision and objective that the FE sector understands particularly well. Scottish colleges have always combined a strong vocational mission, with a genuine concern for the disadvantaged and excluded. Those with learning difficulties, re-entrants, or those who just have not had the opportunities earlier in their lives, have always found support and encouragement within the FE sector. I look forward to receiving the report of the Beattie Committee and what it will have to say about how colleges can better serve the interests of young people with special needs.
As Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning, I shall take a particular interest in special needs issues. Lifelong learning for all must genuinely mean for all. People with special needs must also have the right and the opportunity to share in the benefits that come with the continued development of our economy.
Scotland's FE colleges are also central to our social inclusion agenda, to enabling all of Scotland's people to gain the confidence, skills and abilities to tackle the jobs of the future, to contribute to the making of Scotland's future, and to enjoy the benefits that will undoubtedly flow from it.
'Opportunities for Learning' is a very appropriate theme for your conference today. We want to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to learn, when and how best suits them, and to have access to the right learning options. We aim to build a culture of lifelong learning which cuts across traditional boundaries and reaches Scottish people of all ages, backgrounds and circumstances, to develop the education, skills and attributes which will allow them to access well-paid, rewarding jobs.
My vision for Scotland is that it should take lifelong learning seriously. Scotland has not yet signed up fully to this concept. We need to promote a shift in culture and acceptance. I shall be an advocate for this change. Together, colleges and Government need to say to all Scots that "lifelong learning is for you". Some will require to make a change in lifestyles and the key will be the empowerment of individuals.
Colleges are very well placed as centres of excellence in close touch with local communities, but I also want to see every workplace becoming a learning environment. We must move away from the attitude that school, college or university education somehow represents the completion of training for future employment and life in general. A 4-year course at college or university should not mark an end, it should serve as preparation for a longer course, lasting at least 40 years, during which individuals should develop their skills continuously. The reality is that the key to personal success is continuous education.
I recognise that the concept of a Learning Nation will require a revolution in attitudes, but I am determined that in the years ahead we shall move beyond the rhetoric, to inject a new sense of purpose, centred on lifelong learning.
Integral to our plans for progressing the lifelong learning agenda are a whole series of high profile policy initiatives, in which the FE colleges are playing a major role. The New Deal is now well established and the full-time education and training option has proved highly attractive to young people, with almost 4,000 entrants in Scotland so far. I welcome the positive role colleges have played in this achievement.
The next step of course is to ensure that this option is a real and viable route to work for these young people. We will be watching very closely the results that are achieved over the coming months. Plans are also well advanced to have the Scottish University for Industry up and running by the year 2000. It will tell people what learning is available; explain particular qualifications and what they mean; arrange for people to obtain advice on their choice of learning; put people in touch with a learning provider; and advise on financial support available. Although the framework is still in development, the ideas behind Individual Learning Accounts are to allow individuals to invest in their own learning, with support from employers and, where relevant, from the state.
The Scottish University for Industry will be a brokerage, linking the needs of individuals and employers with providers. Individual Learning Accounts are about empowerment. They will help us to say to people "invest in yourself, get ownership over your future and the training, development and re-skilling you will need."
I see 1999 as a watershed year for the FE sector. We now have a new Scottish Executive with education as its top priority and an agenda focused on widening access to the opportunities of further and higher education. We have spelled out our commitments and proposals in the Partnership document. And as I said to COSHEP recently, I very much see the proposed Committee of Inquiry as addressing the entire issue of student support - including the whole further education sector. That means looking at bursaries, fees and fee waivers. Close attention must also be given to all aspects of student finance and support must be a major part of any widening access agenda.
Tuition fees cannot be looked at in isolation. I recognise that there has been a heated debate during the Holyrood election campaign, but tuition fees are only one aspect, albeit an important one, of a wider issue. The Committee of Inquiry will have to address many issues which, for some students, may act as barriers to their participation in further and higher education. In so doing, it will need to look at all aspects of the access agenda and look at student funding in its entirety.
I accept that there will be hard choices and that there will be no cost-free options. We cannot separate questions related to student support and fees from those related to access, infrastructure, quality and excellence. We have made some progress following the Robbins Committee Report in the 60's in terms of increasing access for students from social classes 4 and 5, but we can, and must, do better. So, the Inquiry will also look at social inclusion issues.
I want the Committee to have a vigorous debate and I shall want the ASC to be represented on the Committee.
We also stand on the threshold of a new Scottish Parliament, the members of which will rightly take a very close interest in the huge planned public investment in further education, how this is targeted and what it achieves. And at the beginning of next month we shall have a completely new funding authority for further education in Scotland, a development which I very much welcome. Robert Beattie has made clear that the new Council intends working closely with the Scottish Executive and with yourselves to ensure that funds are both allocated and invested in order to ensure that the objectives which I think we all share are achieved on the ground.
But what really defines 1999 as a watershed year is that the additional comprehensive spending review funds have come on-stream. The immediate task is to plan the application of these additional resources wisely and well, and to maximum effect. In other words, we are now well into the 'action and implementation' phase of changes of approach and philosophy which have been in train since 1997. In doing so we need always to focus on the 'client group', both the adult returners to learning and the school leavers.
We need to make learning so attractive, and to demonstrate both to employers and to individuals its evident "pay-back", that lifelong learning as a part of adulthood becomes the norm rather than the exception. The benefits both for individuals and the nation are as real and tangible as the costs.
It will be vital, as we enter the next century, for Scotland to increase its investment in human capital, in order to compete effectively in a highly competitive global economy. Scotland's edge can be the quality its human capital and that is where we must win, if our place in that marketplace is to be maintained. Our colleges and universities can help to ensure that success.
A view of what requires to be actioned and implemented, and of the sector's future shape and dynamics was set out by Donald Dewar, when Secretary of State, in "Opportunities for Everyone", a strategic framework for Scottish further education.
I pay ready tribute to colleges' real progress to date in the major expansion in participation in further education which they have delivered in recent years. But the real task ahead is now to extend outreach so that the opportunities and advantages are indeed extended to all, especially those who have not yet felt that a return to learning would be of benefit or relevance to them. It is worth underlining that point. We need to reach out to those who have not benefited thus far. That will require a special effort, but we must succeed in getting the message across, if efforts to tackle social inclusion problems are to be successful.
We have emphasised the need to target effort among those groups of the population who are not well represented among learners. No one is better placed to judge who these people are and how best to encourage their participation than yourselves in the local colleges. That is why so much of the responsibility for identification and action is placed on your shoulders. I recognise that this is a much more difficult task than to attract those who are willing or already well disposed. But you will not be without assistance. The FE funding formula was adjusted in several respects to encourage and support widening access, which will also be at the heart of the new Council's agenda.
I am also in a position today to announce the coming to fruition of work which was commissioned some time ago into the distribution of and participation in further education in Scotland. The study has been carried out by Professor Gillian Raab and Kirsteen Davidson of Napier University, both of whom I understand are here today. Only 3 out of 4 intended volumes of findings and conclusions are yet available. But I think there is advantage in placing what we have in the public domain, so that it can begin to inform colleges' planning, and the future decisions of the Funding Council.
The conclusions of the Report are many and detailed and it is not really for me to paraphrase them here. Suffice it to say there is generally encouraging news in how accessible the colleges are to the population of Scotland. And in those areas which are less physically accessible there is a high participation in distance learning courses. In other words, advancing technology, and in particular learning technology, is beginning to overcome the age old Scottish problems of distance and geography. But our development of a knowledge economy, "digital Scotland" and the National Grid for Learning need to be advanced if we are to reach those currently isolated by geographical factors.
The real value of an in-depth study like this is to enable colleges and the Council to identify gaps and overlaps in patterns of participation and to adjust and rationalise accordingly the plans for, and investment in, the supply side of the equation.
That brings me to the other main point which I wish to touch on today. When it comes to delivering a widening access agenda, in the context of providing adequate and efficient further education across Scotland, this can only be achieved by colleges working together as partner providers, rather than in competition with each other. If we are to match the supply side of the FE equation to the demand side, it does require a coherence of planning which goes beyond the scope of the individual college. Collaboration between colleges and the principle of working together is increasingly the order of the day and I look to the Funding Council to encourage and further develop that. I would also pay tribute to the role which the Association itself has played in promoting the spirit and practice of colleges' working together rather than against each other. There are major advantages for the Scottish FE sector in having a representative organisation of such calibre, whose efforts and achievements have gained such credibility and respect in the wider world. I hope that co-operation will increasingly be the watchword as you yourselves begin to work with the new Scottish Executive and the new Funding Council in planning for the future.
It is perhaps an obvious statement, but I am deadly serious about the need for colleges to work together. I am aware that turf wars can and do exist, as well as growing evidence of colleges working well together. I recall from my previous experiences in Fife that the 4 colleges there were working well together.
It will be vital, in terms of Scottish efforts to compete on the world stage for all colleges to pull together in the same direction. I know that this is difficult and that you face real challenges, but I would encourage your continuing efforts.
Finally, I would like to emphasise to you today that I see both efficiency and excellence as being the proper hallmarks of further education. Both are dependent on sound college management, backed by involved, visionary and committed Boards of Management. I shall want to see as I visit colleges, a real focus on the highest standards and best practices, in every area of activity, but especially in governance and management. And I shall look forward in that context to the results of the management review which the Funding Council has been asked to undertake.
I do not feel that anyone should be threatened by this review. I would simply say that a vast amount of taxpayers' money is invested in Scottish further education. The review is not intended to reinvent the wheel, but we do need to ensure that best practice is identified and shared. This review can be of tremendous benefit to the sector.
I have deliberately tried to curtail my remarks this morning. Whilst still so new in post, the major benefit for me of my being here today is to hear how you, the colleges, plan to rise to the challenges which are set out in the new strategic framework for further education, and how best you propose to use the additional resources coming the sector's way. I shall be pleased to listen and to understand better how the sector is going about the business in hand and what plans and objectives are being formulated.
In the months and years ahead, I will demand a great deal from you and you can certainly demand a great deal from me. FE colleges are a vital part of Scotland's future efforts to liberate the potential of all parts of our society and turn our plans for a learning nation into practice.
I look forward to working with you and feel sure that we can, together, face the challenges which lie ahead as we take further education into the new Millennium.
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