A group of further education professionals from Akureyri Comprehensive College (VMA) in Northern Iceland visited Forth Valley College’s Falkirk Campus on Thursday 29 May, as part of a trip to Scotland to learn about vocational education and training (VET).
As part of their research into Scottish institutions, the academics were interested in seeing FVC due to it being similar in size to their own organisation. They also discovered that FVC has been recognised for its outstanding teaching and were interested in learning about the College’s approach to VET.
Colin McMurray, Vice Principal of Business & Innovation, welcomed the 35-strong Icelandic group and invited them to the Steeple Suite for a short presentation and overview of FVC. The visiting party was then taken on a tour of the state-of-the-art campus, before participating in an AR welding demonstration.
Further round-table group discussions were then held with FVC academics from all disciplines, before the group enjoyed lunch at the Gallery Restaurant in the Stirling Campus and a short tour.
Jóhannes Árnason, teacher and international coordinator from VMA said: ” We can go on these trips because we have a clause in our contracts between our teacher union and the government of Iceland that a small percentage of our salary and a small addition to our salary goes into a lifelong learning fund and we can apply for money to fund trips to visit schools in other countries.
“Visiting Forth Valley College was almost a wake-up call. Our college, VMA, has an important role in our community, just as Forth Valley College has. The campuses are impressive, but we found it more impressive to hear about, and witness, the care for students. The study programmes and the multiple links to schools, universities and workplaces is because of students, and for students. This makes Forth Valley College extremely important for the community. We can learn a lot from this and we hope we can collaborate in future.”
Colin McMurray, said: “We were honoured to welcome the delegation from Akureyri to Forth Valley College. This visit was a wonderful opportunity to showcase our flexible, world-class facilities and discuss the exciting potential for collaboration with our peers in Iceland.
“We look forward to building on this relationship and exploring joint initiatives that benefit both our College and theirs.”
Jamie Allan, FVC Global Partnership Manager, who arranged the visit, said: “Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the visit and meet our Icelandic colleagues from VMA on the day, however it was great to be in touch and facilitate arrangements beforehand so they got the most out of their visit. The fact that they sought out FVC to visit amongst other city-based colleges is a great testament to the work we’re doing to become a more globally connected college of international repute in teaching excellence. I hope this is the start of an exciting new relationship with a great college in a very cool country!”
