Colleges are doing great things to help our country recover from Covid - Iain Hawker

Recent findings from Audit Scotland gave out a stark warning on the prospects of meeting the future training and education needs of our economy. Their report stated that without more leadership on what targets we needed to meet, and further direction on how we should achieve these goals, the gap between the required and available skills in our workforce note-0would only continue to widen.

Iain Hawker, Assistant Principal – Quality and Academic Partnerships, Fife College

It was a report that should cause significant concern throughout sectors across Scotland. In the post-pandemic landscape it’s essential that we do everything we can to enable our economy to recover as quickly as possible, and that means ensuring that those sectors that have the potential to grow can find a workforce capable of helping them succeed.

Equally with unemployment expected to rise, especially amongst young people, we owe it to them to provide guidance on where jobs are likely to be available in the near future, and how they can access the skills required to work in these industries.

This is where Scotland’s college sector has been doing vital work. For decades we’ve been developing our knowledge of our local regions and working with local employers to discuss their needs and how we can help train their future workforce. For example in Fife we not only look at which industries are currently employing people locally, but we also examine which sectors are due to see an increase in demand over the next few years.

Our current data suggests that personal care, health and business professions are all likely to see spikes in new positions being created over the next three years in our area, and if we’re to meet that demand we need to act now.

That’s why Fife College’s 2022-23 academic prospectus, launched at the beginning of this year, is aimed at giving any individual who studies with us the opportunities, knowledge and skills they need to enter the world of work. We’re offering over 400 courses across 40 different subject areas with a complete range of qualifications across these, from vocational training and apprenticeships to HNCs, HNDs and Degrees.

By working with local employers we can ensure that we are fully geared towards getting our students into positive destinations, and help to meet the skills needs of our economy. This approach led to latest figures from the Scottish Funding Council showing 90 per cent of our full-time graduates going into work or further study, and we were by no means the only college to have a high success rate when it came to achieving the best for our students.

Scotland’s colleges can and are doing great things to help our country recover from the pandemic. Fife College is working directly with businesses to upskill their workforce utilising Flexible Workforce Development Funds and creating apprenticeship opportunities supported by Skills Development Scotland. And with flexible and hybrid training opportunities for more employers becoming available, there has never been a better opportunity for any individual to start or change their career.

Together as a sector, colleges are doing all we can to address the issues that Audit Scotland have highlighted in their report, and with more support we can ensure we meet the future training and education needs of our economy.

Iain Hawker, Assistant Principal – Quality and Academic Partnerships, Fife College