Foreword by Cabinet Secretary
This Scottish Government wants to build a self-confident, outward-looking Scotland - an ambitious nation with opportunities for everyone to benefit and make a positive contribution to Scotland's prosperity. To help achieve this, we want colleges to realise their aspiration to be vocational education and training providers of choice for learners and employers and key strategic partners in their communities.
The Review of Scotland's Colleges was undertaken to provide robust evidence and informed recommendations for change, so that sound decisions could be taken on how we fund and equip colleges to meet future challenges and demands. I am grateful for the time and effort which stakeholders invested in the Review and for the knowledge, experience and expertise they brought to bear.
In this response, I outline how we will build on the many excellent practices taking place across colleges throughout Scotland. It is essential to our future success that we work in partnership with colleges and other stakeholders to promote excellence in all Scotland's colleges across the full range of their functions so that they can better meet the needs of all individuals, businesses and communities they serve.
I want to:
- raise the efficiency and effectiveness of colleges to the highest possible level, including improving retention and attainment;
- increase the flexibility and responsiveness of colleges to meet the evolving needs of individuals and employers;
- deliver an improvement in skills utilisation;
- extend the reach of colleges; and
- enhance partnership to ensure coherent learning provision across Scotland and to better support individuals, including easing their transitions to and from college.
Together we will help achieve these outcomes by developing the capacity of colleges to deliver. In particular, the Review identifies actions to:
- better serve the needs of individuals and employers;
- develop the skills of college staff and governors and better support them;
- enhance the learner experience; and
- improve the quality of information available to colleges and other stakeholders.
Scotland has been a learning nation in the past. We need to make sure we are a learning nation of the future. In doing this, colleges should lead by example. They should be exemplars in the learning opportunities they provide, including those to their own staff and members of their governing body.
I am confident that Scotland's colleges have both the capability and ambition to meet this Government's high expectations.
Fiona Hyslop MSP
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning