14 City of Glasgow College Annual Report & Accounts 2020-21
Teaching to excellence
Recognising that tackling the pandemic's impact on
Scotland's productivity will demand more from our
skills system, this year, the College commenced work
to reshape the role and purpose of tertiary education
in Scotland, leading on a new iteration of technological
and professional education, referencing the influential
Cumberford Little Report (2020) co-authored by the
College's Principal.
Central to this work is our ongoing commitment to
World Skills (WS), helping to drive the development of
international standards in skills. World Skills is better
known as the 'Skills Olympics', the largest international
skills competition in the world, representing 84 countries
and benchmarking international standards and training
methods for over 40 years. Research conducted
by SKOPE, as part of the University of Oxford, and
WorldSkills UK (2019), concluded that the WSUK
network, provides a framework for international best
practice and excellence.
Supporting over 150 competitors and 25 plus national
competitions, the College leads the UK in World Skills
and consistently ranks within the top 10 skills nations in
the world - winning four of the last five competitions, plus
a runners-up spot in that period.
This year the progress made by the College was formally
recognised, becoming part of the WorldSkills UK Centre
of Excellence programme.
The judges were highly impressed by the commitment
from our leadership team to WS, connecting staff,
boosting teacher training and building confidence in
the delivery of world class technical education and how
the UK Centre of Excellence will contribute towards our
quality improvement agenda.
With over 40 skills coaches, the College is also
supporting the development of the World Skills
Community of Practice, to grow global standards,
expertise and best practice.
Alongside WS, the College is building its capacity in
pursuit of Taught Degree Awarding Powers, growing its
international and innovation profile, and post pandemic, is
committed to clearer, better connected and understood
learner pathways and articulation routes across its region.
One part of this, is a plan to reshape technical education,
together with Government and funding bodies, building
on the history of vocational education in Scotland.
This will involve the development of new degree-level
technological qualifications, providing new opportunities
for adults and those returning to education and training.
Responding to recent reforms of our education and skills
system, the aim is to provide a new configuration of
learning, skills and innovation, and stronger and deeper
business- academic immersion. The aim is to establish a
new high-performing brand for excellence and mastery in
technological/ vocational skills.
At the other end of the skills spectrum the College is
also supporting the Sector to transform the way it meets
the demand from employers for more compact learning
opportunities. In particular, to support flexible entry
and certificated exit points, in the form of "stackable"
qualifications and microcredentials. In doing so, the
College is committed to widening learning opportunities
and providing additional more flexible routes into
education and employment.
External Assessment
A measure of the College's effectiveness is the
assessment of its compliance in meeting the quality
standards set by external quality bodies. This included
two successful assessments of its Quality Management
System by the British Standards Institute (BSI) to the ISO
9001:2015 standard.
The audits confirmed that on-going improvements had
been realised and the College achieved recertification for
the ISO 9001:2015 standard with zero non-conformities
identified.
The auditors highlighted the strong and agile leadership,
especially the ability to quickly meet the immediate
needs of the organisation during a challenging year. The
auditors also noted that:
"the provision of digital and blended learning has been
effective and met the immediate requirements to support
operations; the holistic approach to assessment and
Internal Quality Assurance panels were robust and
effective; student admissions, induction and digital on-
boarding processes were effective and compliant with the
standard".
Maintaining Customer Standards
The College successfully met the standards of the
Customer Service Excellence award. This year's audit
focussed on Student
Engagement, Alumni and Graduation. The College was
found to be operating above the compliance standard in
15 categories with zero non-conformities.
Other external quality accreditation maintained in 20-21
included:
• Cyberessentials plus