The majority of Scotland’s colleges say they are forging deeper links with schools - but parents say these partnerships need to be stronger and better defined.

Nine out of the 14 colleges that responded to a Tes Scotland survey said they have increased or deepened their links with local schools in line with recommendations in the government’s Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) strategy, published three years ago. Six colleges claimed they have partnered with more schools, while another three said the number of schools they worked with had not increased but more pupils were being reached.

Of the five colleges that said their partnerships with schools had remained unchanged during the three years, two explicitly stated they were already engaging with all schools in their region. A further six did not respond to the survey in time for our print deadline.

Joanna Murphy, chair of the National Parent Forum of Scotland, said the partnership work carried out so far was “not good enough”. Despite welcoming the progress made, she argued that the options available to pupils were still not clear enough. “Routes into college are not discussed within schools enough, and college courses studied within the senior phase are pretty varied in both the subjects offered and the method of delivery,” she said. Colleges have a duty to promote their courses and internal progression routes more widely to pupils and parents, as well as to fit in better with school timetables, she added.

And school staff need to take college courses more seriously and encourage pupils to regularly attend them throughout the year, urged Ms Murphy.

‘Create regional hubs’

Eileen Prior, executive director of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, called for a clear definition of the “scope or scale of the relationship between school and college”.

She added: “These relationships are critical to DYW, as young people have the opportunity to take up different options for qualifications and future work.”

Andrew Witty, director of sector policy at Colleges Scotland, insisted that colleges had made “very good progress in increasing engagement with schools” since 2014. He added: “By forging better links with schools, we can ensure there is better integration of curriculums and that pupils are well aware of the many vocational training options available to them through colleges.”

The organisation is backing a model whereby colleges would act as “regional vocational hubs”, with all education bodies aligned with existing regional college structures. This would help colleges to provide simpler, more efficient pathways from schools and into employment, as well as allow for a more consistent approach across Scotland, said Mr Witty.

Education secretary John Swinney told Tes Scotland: “Our objective is a world-class system of vocational education in which colleges work with schools and employers to deliver learning that is directly relevant to boosting the employment opportunities for all our young people.”

He added many schools and colleges were working together, and that colleges had well-established arrangements with local secondary schools to provide young people with opportunities to access vocational programmes.

“The challenge now is to ensure that that offer extends to all young people and to create a climate where they, their parents, teachers and employers value - and demand - a range of routes into jobs and careers,” he said.