School College Collaboration project 1 - video transcript
Hello there, my name is Katy Gordon and I am the national project manager for Schools College Collaboration. This is a Careers Scotland project funded by the Scottish Government initially for a period of two years, it covers the whole of Scotland and started in August 2006. Its aim is to support the careers guidance needs of all pupils from S2 upwards who are involved in School College Collaborative activities.
It works in two main ways, either through delivery of events directly to pupils or partnership working with teachers and lecturers. I can't tell you about all the events as there are far too many to mention but a flavour of some of the pupil events could be; events to support them when they are trying to get selected for skills for work; events to help them think about what skills they have developed in skills for work; events to help them think about the realities of college life for when they apply after they leave school. The partnership working may be through regional conferences where we bring schools and college lecturers together to think about how they can support these guidance needs. We've commissioned winter leavers research which is a major funded piece of research looking at pupils who want to leave school early and go in to college, there's a theatre tour we've been running in colleges helping pupils who are in skills for work coming to the end of their courses, think about there transferable skills. We have also developed Careers Box for colleges and trained teachers and lecturers in how to deliver that.
The project has recently commissioned a theatre tour of Scotland's colleges targeting pupils coming to the end of their skills for work courses. Theatre Anndeveloped the show and have delivered it in 19 colleges throughout Scotland since March this year. Through a series of sketches the show prompts the young people to consider what skills they've developed through their course to raise awareness of post school opportunities and to motivate them to embrace the learning culture whether in college, university or apprenticeships.
So, how has the project been working so far?
Well year one I would really describe as a developmental year where lots of different things were developed in the different regions on an almost try it and see basis. Year two we've pulled things much more tightly together and the goal has been to spread the good practice across the country. We've managed to raise the profile of our work in partnership with schools and colleges and have developed a large amount of marketing materials to raise the profile with external funders.
We've built capacity by supporting teachers and lecturers in various tools that they can use with pupils. We've worked very collaboratively with our colleagues in Highlands and Islands to spread learning from both sides of the country across the whole country. And we have also, we've just heard that we are getting funding for the next three years, so in this period we'll be able to build on what we have learnt so far and spread the activities further across the country and also develop measures to demonstrate impact.
If you want to find out more please contact Careers Scotland on 0845 8 502 502 thank you.
