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Self-Evaluation Tool for Scotland's Colleges

Quality Enhancement Timeline

Enhancement Themes

Self-Evaluation Tool for Scotland's Colleges

HMIe have kindly made available the Determined to Succeed self-evaluation application which will be of particular interest to quality managers and management in colleges preparing for inspections or reviewing progress and targets on an ongoing basis.

Quality Enhancement Timeline

Funding Council guidance to colleges on quality - June 2008 (203.85 kB)

This guide is designed to provide support for everyone who assesses for SQA qualifications.

SQA Guide to Assessment - June 2008 (716.14 kB)

This letter is to inform Scotland's colleges that the Council has published new guidance on issues relating to quality assurance and enhancement of learning and teaching.

Effective Self-Evaluation Reporting in Scotland's Colleges - October 2007 (201.68 kB)

A report by HM Inspectorate of Education for the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council.

Preparing for Work - a report on the Skills for Work pilot programme - September 2007 (885.9 kB)

A report on the Skills forWork pilot programme.

Preparing Learners for Learning - July 2007 (232.09 kB)

A toolkit for self-evaluation and quality enhancement.

Choosing to learn learning to choose - April 2007 (504.34 kB)

Learner choices - how students and potential students make their choices about post-compulsory education, whether to study, what to study and where - are increasingly important to the Scottish Funding Council. The choices that people make about their learning and careers are the most important influences on patterns of participation and of provision.

The Council does not provide direct advice to learners - that is the job of institutions, Careers Scotland, Learndirect Scotland and other agencies. We do, however, want to explore how we can help build better learner-centred support and advice systems - through work with other agencies - and through our own work on participation and skills.

The report considers theories of choice, examines the available studies on learner choice in all post-compulsory education and then makes some recommendations. We are aware, that almost all the studies available on this topic are about higher education institutions (HEIs). We plan to investigate further potential sources of evidence for learner choice in the college sector, and seek to improve the evidence base in this area.

ICT in learning and teaching HMIe - March 2007 (2.06 MB)

HMIE published Into the Classroom of Tomorrow, its last major report relevant to ICT, in 2002. This was followed in 2004 with a self-evaluation guide on Using ICT in Learning and Teaching and, in 2005, with the publication of an interim report on The integration of information and communications technology in Scottish schools. The present report brings HMIE's evaluations of the impact of ICT on Scottish education up to date.

Employability in colleges baseline study and next steps SFC - March 2007 (300.8 kB)

The purpose of this circular is to draw your attention to the outcomes of the baseline study of employability-related activities in colleges, commissioned by the Council in 2006, and to tell you about the next steps.

Citizenship in Scotlands Colleges - November 2006 (216.29 kB)

The development of skills for citizenship in education is not just a Scottish priority. In recent years, there has been a much greater focus across Europe and further afield on the development of these skills in learners, as a direct response from educationalists and policy makers to a series of shared challenges:

• societies facing rapid and sometimes unpredictable change
• issues arising from increasing cultural, religious and social diversity
• dealing with groups of young people who feel excluded from the process of education and from the value systems represented by schools and colleges as agencies of society.

Good Practice in Scotlands Colleges - October 2006 (175.16 kB)

In Improving Scottish Education HMIE identifies the sharing of good practice as one of the key areas for further improvement in the college sector - "Colleges should do more to identify, capture and use effectively the good practice which exists in many aspects of their provision and use it to enhance the quality of less effective aspects."

The purpose of this report is to describe the main mechanisms currently in use in Scotland's colleges to ensure that the adoption of good practice actually happens. It investigates how colleges identify and promote good practice in their own institutions; how they develop strategies and processes to ensure good practice is shared, adopted and implemented effectively; how they gain awareness of and access to sector-leading and innovative practice in other institutions; and how they evaluate the impact of this activity on learners.

Overcoming Barriers Enabling Learners - October 2006 (244.7 kB)

The further education (FE) curriculum in Scotland's colleges aims to enable people to develop skills and capacities which will improve the quality of their working, personal, family and community life. To achieve this aim people need assistance to overcome barriers constraining their confidence and ability to take part in learning situations and equip them with new skills that enable them to progress to employment or further learning.

The Enhancement Equation - July 2006 (1.63 MB)

The prominent newspaperman and political commentator HL Mencken once said that ‘You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.' Not only a profound statement, believe that this quotation reflects the Quality Enhancement agenda in Scotland's Colleges.

Improving Scottish Education - HMIe Review 2002-2005 - February 2006 (2.14 MB)

Improving Scottish Education comments on the quality of provision across all sectors and offers:

• a commentary by HM Senior Chief Inspector;
• a section with six summarising reports, each focusing on one of the sectors of education;
• a section summarising and commenting on some of the major themes and issues arising from the sector reports and other HMIE reports; and
• a final short section commenting on aspects which have led to overall improvement and indicating the focus of HMIE activities in the next few years.

Learning to Improve - November 2005 (816.91 kB)

How can we be sure that learners are getting the best possible support from the education and training system to meet their needs and wants? This report examines ideas which help us to understand:

• the nature of learning;
• what quality and excellence in learning should be;
• what we should mean by ‘good teaching';
• what stakeholders want from qualifications; and
• how we should promote quality learning.

Quality Framework for Scottish FE Colleges - May 2004 (619.46 kB)

One of the five people-centred goals within the Lifelong Learning Strategy for Scotland (February 2003) is A Scotland where people demand and providers deliver a high quality learning experience. HM Inspectorate of Education intends that this revised quality framework for Scottish further education colleges will help learners and providers to achieve this goal.

Enhancement Themes

Employability

In November 2006 the Scottish Funding Council published a "Baseline study of employability: related activities in Scotland's colleges".

View the final report or a summary report is also available.

Principles

The following principles underpin delivery of a raised ambition:

• shared responsibility
• focus on economically valuable skills
• demand-led skills
• adapt and respond
• build on existing structures.

Retention and Achievement

Related Reports

9,000 voices: student persistence and drop-out in further education - Martinez and Munday

London, Further Education Development Agency (1998)

Student retention in further education: a problem of quality or of student finance? - P Davies

Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference (1999)

Accountability, audit and exclusion in Further and Higher Education - Hodkinson and Bloomer

Presented at the Standing Conference on University Teaching and Research in the Education of Adults (2000)