‘Colleges should do more to prep students for workplace’

COLLEGES could be doing more the prepare students for the workplace, a report has found.

Teaching staff do not always make clear enough to students the importance to employers of key skills – including employability.

The report by Education Scotland looks into how well colleges prepare learners for work.

Mark Batho, chief executive of the Scottish Funding Council, said: “Colleges have a crucial role to play in developing the skills and abilities of learners, enabling them to participate in and contribute more effectively to the economy, their communities, or to progress to further learning.

“For that reason, I am confident that colleges will also be taking on board the messages from the report on areas where improvements in provision.”

It also finds that in some areas, advisory groups are not being effective in bringing employers and programme teams together for the benefit of the college, employers and learners. Colleges also do not have good enough information about the destinations or next steps of their learners.

Guidance teams at colleges work well to support learners into employment, but they find it difficult to track their students once they have left college. But the report also finds that all colleges have long-established and successful partnerships with employers and organisations.