A high powered delegation of Forth Valley College staff has helped to promote further education at a Shared Learning Conference held at St Modan’s High School in Stirling.
Focussing on School College Partnership Delivery – which includes School College Opportunities to Succeed (SCOTS), Skills for Work, HNC, Advanced Highers and Foundation Apprenticeships - the event was held in the School’s Benedict Hall on Friday 6 December.
It attracted headteachers, principal teachers of appropriate curriculum areas - such as: Technologies; Computing; Science; Business; Care – and representatives from School College Partnership links, DHT Curriculum and DYW Forth Valley.
FVC’s delegation included Directors of Curriculum, Operation Mangers and Curriculum Managers and representatives from the College’s School Partnership Team – and School Partnership Students – the Student Support team and from the Communications and Marketing Department.
The conference – which attracted 93 education professionals from across the Forth Valley area - aimed to develop a better strategic understanding of the importance of partnership working between the schools and the College and to foster a better understanding of each other’s institutions, in order to develop actions to improve greater equity of access to FVC partnership courses.
Key themes that were explored on the day included:
- Recruitment
- Timetabling
- Expectations of pupils in both environments
- Progression and the learner journey
- Sharing and making use of transitions information
- Attendance, behaviour and progress
- Continuous enhancement of programmes
It is hoped the feedback, ideas and an understanding of the challenges from all stakeholders perspectives on the day, will enable the implementation of a sustainable action plan to improve uptake, attainment and success on School College Partnership programmes.
Kenny MacInnes, Vice Principal Learning and Student Experience, who also attended the event, said: “The last few years have seen Forth Valley College and our partner schools in all three of our local authority areas develop a very strong, progressive and innovative relationship, which has helped direct hundreds of pupils into further education.
“We were delighted to attend this important conference and share best practice with our partners from our local high schools. This event offered everyone the chance to enhance our skills and knowledge and interact to better understand the challenges and issues faced by everyone involved in our School College Partnership operation. We are confident this conference will be a springboard to even greater success in this area.”
Helen Young Head of FVC’s Learning and Quality, one of the organisers of the event, said: “We have already established a successful partnership over a number of years with our local 18 secondary schools, where more than 1000 pupils currently attend courses as part of our school college provision. We run many courses including SCOTS, Skills for Work, City and Guilds Qualifications, Foundation Apprenticeships across 10 frameworks and several HNCs.
“We want to keep building on the great foundation we have already established, ensuring that we are continually improving and expanding the provision, maximising opportunities for our young people in Forth Valley.”