A website, created in partnership between colleges and universities from across Central, Southern and Eastern Scotland – including Forth Valley College – has won the ‘Best Use of Technology in Education’ award at the first Herald Digital Transformation Awards.
The ‘Pathways’ website, a product of the Regional Learner Passport Partnership (RLPP), has been recognised for playing a key role in helping increase the visibility of positive learner pathways from college to a degree.
Led by Fife College, alongside Edinburgh College and Queen Margaret University, the RLPP, which includes a total of 14 tertiary education institutions, created a web solution which pulls together often complex articulation information into one platform, making information on routes from SQA Higher National (HN) qualifications to university degrees more accessible.
With so many pathways and routes of study from Higher National Certificate and Diploma to degrees, and advertising, promotion and understanding of routes often complex, the Pathways website has helped make things easier for pupils, students, parents and advisers to navigate.
Launched in July 2020, the website has already had thousands of views, providing a ‘one-stop shop’ for those looking for information on education pathways.
Lisa Baxter, FVC’s University Partnership Officer, said: “As a member of the RLPP Steering Group, it’s great that the contributions of all staff involved in the project have been recognised by the Herald Digital Transformation Awards. It has been a great project to be involved in, working with all university and college representatives, helping to raise awareness of articulation options in the region by the development of www.pathways.ac.uk .”
Iain Hawker, Assistant Principal at Fife College said: “As Chair of the RLPP, I am delighted that our partnership work on the Pathways website has been recognised at the Herald Digital Transformation Awards.
“Pathways, a unique platform which supports making higher education articulation routes much easier to understand, navigate and find, simply would not have been possible without the input of all our 14 education partners involved in the partnership.
“The Pathways platform has helped clear confusion by reducing the number of institution websites and documents students need to access before deciding on next steps. It is a great example of a traditional process being transformed through use of digital technology.
“We look forward to working collaboratively with our education partners to continue providing pupils, careers advisors and students with the best information possible to support those important transition steps in higher education.”
The Herald Digital Transformation Awards were created to celebrate how organisations across all sectors successfully have adopted digital technology into daily practices, particularly in the wake of the pandemic.
The winners of the Herald Digital Transformation Awards 2021 were announced during a virtual awards ceremony on Thursday 4 November.
Full list of colleges and universities involved in the Regional Learner Passport Partnership (RLPP):
Fife College
Borders College
Edinburgh College
Forth Valley College
Newbattle Abbey College
West Lothian College
Edinburgh Napier University
Heriot Watt University
Open University
Queen Margaret University
University of Edinburgh
Scotland’s Rural University College (SRUC)
University of St Andrews
University of Stirling
Pathways platform can be accessed https://www.pathways.ac.uk/About