The Highland Council Regional Quality Asssurance and SfW Delivery
Highland Council has taken an innovative approach to providing equal opportunities for pupils to access Skills for Work courses (see Skills for Scotland: A Lifelong Skills Strategy, Scottish Government, 2007) and ensure Quality Assurance in delivery throughout the area.
The project was initially focused on Rural Skills as it was not offered by any college in Highland, where the land based sector is a key industry. With the support of additional funding from the Scottish Government a Schools Liaison Officer for Rural Skills was appointed in February 2007. The main purpose of this role was to help schools implement sustainable Rural Skills courses, both Scottish Progression Award and Skills for Work, using local business partners to deliver the subject expertise.
The success of this project was confirmed in two independent evaluation reports (Evaluation of Rural Skills Project, Dec 08 and Learning at Creag Megaidh, Report for Lantra, March 08) and it was clear that there was a need to extend the role of the Liaison Officer to support a wider range of Skills for Work subjects.
All available Skills for Work courses can now be delivered by schools through business partnerships. With a rapid expansion of school-business delivery, Highland Council required to quality assure pupils’ experiences, and to minimise schools’ workload by standardising all procedures regarding verification.
The main driver for the RQA project was the validity of the standard EV strategy when all assessment is continual and evidence largerly observation. The model evolved as the most appropriate and robust method of quality assurance given the nature and method of the SFW delivery in the region. An added benefit for the SQA is that the RQA ensures that a national standard is being applied and met consistently throughout schools across Highland.
All Quality Assurance issues are now managed centrally and all centres are using standard and approved paperwork. Regular opportunities to network and have inset training events are a valuable feature of the processes in place to enable Highland Council and SQA to maintain standards.
Development of RQA in 2009-2010
Highland Council will continue to build on the success of the model to date, and to develop it in the following ways:
- Creating an HC SQA Centre to ensure pupils outwith mainstream education also have opportunities for SFW
- To develop the RQA model into SQA Desk Space to cut paperwork and increase access for validation purposes
- Continuation of the RQA Model, and making it sustainable
- More Choices, More Chances – the role of SFW in addressing this agenda
- 16+ Learning Choices – the place of SFW in supporting 16+ Learning Choices
- Support for schools to enable them to continue and extend their SFW provision
- Continuing the development of SFW – additional subjects, new partnerships
- Building the Curriculum 4 – looking at how SFW will help to fulfil the requirements of BTC4.
The RQA model has provided many benefits to Pupils, Staff and Partners. Highland Council has been enabled to offer Skills for Work Courses to pupils across the region. Invaluable learning experiences in team working, self esteem, confidence and new learning environments for pupils in various industries have also giving pupils a greater understanding of the wider world and life long learning, thus enhancing their future career paths.
The delivery of SfW in Highland schools has enabled 200 pupils to gain a SfW qualification in August 2009, with several candidates securing employment or training with a business partner they worked with throughout the course since leaving school. This number will increase significantly this year and in future.
For further information contact:
Maxine Garson
School Liaison Officer – Skills for Work
maxine.garson@highland.gov.uk
07919 691 422