Schools and Colleges Working Together

Schools and colleges have traditionally worked closely together to ensure that the vocational experiences of learners are stimulating and effective.The 'Lifelong Partners' reports (2005) provided a range of recommendations for enhancing cross-sectoral provision of vocational education.

With the advent of initiatives such as Skills for Work and the Curriculum for Excellence, with a focus on the Scottish Government National Outcomes, the need for partnership is more vital than ever.

The effectiveness of collaboration between local authorities, schools and colleges to ensure sustainability of initiatives will be paramount. In this session, examples of good practice approaches to collaboration will be highlighted.The 'Youth Guarantee for Scotland' and 'More Choices More Chances' will add further dimensions to this collaboration and capacity building will become increasingly important with initiatives for broadening the curriculum, employer engagement, and joint staff development all to the fore.

As younger students attend colleges, college academic staff may benefit from staff development to ensure that they understand and apply an effective range of classroom management strategies.

This could provide opportunities for school and college staff to work together to ensure that pedagogical approaches are consistent and effective.

With the continuing development of ICT to support learning, teaching and management e.g. GLOW, issues with college access to school systems may be a potential challenge.

This interactive session will identify issues and provide an opportunity for delegates to contribute to the debate.

John joined SFEU in September 2003 as Depute Chief Executive.

This follows an extensive career in the sector in teaching, as an HMI and in senior management positions at Glenrothes College.

John has key responsibilities in planning, development and delivery of services to Scotland's colleges.

He makes a number of contributions to national groups and works closely with other agencies to ensure the sector benefits from the wealth of experience within SFEU and in external agencies.

He writes extensively in Broadcast and in other media and makes regular presentations to international, national and college audiences on the work of Scotland's colleges.