Cross-sector collaboration is key to opening pathways for all young people, Scotland’s education secretary has said.
Speaking at yesterday’s SCQF Partnership conference in Glasgow, John Swinney stressed the importance of colleges, schools and universities working together to ensure the education system was “individualised” and helping all young people to reach their potential.
The government’s ongoing review of the learner journey had already led to a number of conclusions, he told the audience. Cross-system collaboration was crucial, he explained. “We recognise an ever greater need to increase collaboration, particularly in post-15 education. I see very encouraging signs of this, mainly by schools which had embraced the Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) agenda.”
The government’s DYW strategy recommends closer collaboration between schools and colleges to ensure appropriate pathways are available for all young people.
Duplication between school and university
He added that the review had also highlighted that there was, for some pupils, duplication between sixth year of school and the first year of a university degree. And while young people were entering university after year one, fewer than one per cent of those students leaving after sixth year of school went straight into second year of a university degree.
There were “reasonable limits” to college and university collaboration, said the education secretary. “Not all HN courses” needed to lead to full credit in a university degree, and those links were also not possible where the curriculum at college and university did not align.
However, he said a cultural shift was also needed: “Most young people still feel that we have a binary approach to education, where university education is over-promoted as the only option that really matters.”
Speaking at the same conference, Scotland’s fair access commissioner Sir Peter Scott said students leaving college with HN qualifications should be admitted into university with full credit. “It shouldn’t be up to the student to make the case, it should be up to the institution to prove an exception.”
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