Scottish Convention

Capita Further and Higher Education’s second Scottish Convention took place again at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh’s excellent conference facilities, hosting customers from throughout Scotland.

A year ago, the implications of the economic downturn were clearly becoming evident within the sector. Chris Travers, Chief Executive of Scotland’s Colleges, summarised the key task facing the sector in June 2009 when he stated:

“Scotland’s Colleges are often best placed to respond to the affects of economic downturn by offering re-training and re-skilling opportunities to those finding themselves out of work. Equally as important is the big rise in demand for places from school leavers.”

Scottish governments have committed £572 million in funding to learning, teaching and student support; the ‘Scotland College Skills without Debt’ campaign, which aims to remove student debt from Scottish colleges and The Government’s ‘Supporting a Smarter Scotland’ consultation, which focuses on replacing the student loan with a student bursary. This approach demonstrates a strong vote of confidence in the sector’s ability to deliver, providing benefits to the national economy.

However, with target savings for the College and University sectors currently at £96 million for 2010-2011 there is a significant challenge ahead.

Day 1

The Conference started with an inspiring keynote address by PeterMalcolm, Acting Principal at Jewel and Esk College. Entitled, ‘Keeping the Principal Happy’, Peter's talk looked at some of the risks an MIS Officer faces working with statistics and the danger of becoming a ‘Positivist’. He also raised the need to become a ‘Critical Realist’, recognising that although there are many answers within the strata of data, it is the quality of the conversation accompanying the data that is most significant. Click here to view Perer Malcolm's interview.

Gerry Dougan, the e-College Lead Specialist at Scotland’s Colleges, next offered an update on their work to date. The presentation covered topics such as: the provision of information to learners, which continued from  Peter Malcolm’s earlier presentation; the conversion of information into intelligence; the wider access to information for collaboration across institutions and future technology trends, such as cloud computing. Click here to view Gerry Dougan's interview.
 
Capita Further and Higher Education are very proud of their Microsoft Gold Partner status and were privileged to be joined by Stephen Grier, Microsoft’s Scotland Education Manager, who both spoke of the  Company’s immediate news, such as the release of Windows 7, and provided insight into how Microsoft technology might change the way institutions work. Click here to view Steve Grier's interview.

The closing session of the day provided an update on developments within the Capita UNIT-e product, including the recently launched Human Resource module, credit card payment solutions and the collaborative development to improve learner support tracking around dominant programme groups. Click here to view Adrian Kilburn's interview.

Day 2

The second day of the Convention started with dual presentations from the Scottish Qualifications Authority. First, Roddy Gillespie discussed the Curriculum for Excellence programme, set to establish significant rationalisation to the SQA qualification framework that will be gradually phased in over the next 6 years. Click here to view Roddy Gilespie's interview.

Martin Hughes and Helen Bennett continued the SQA theme by providing an update on centre support issues, including the considerable number of college visits, seminaries and the development of new features within the support area of the SQA website. Click here to view Helen Bennett's interview.

Following this section, efficient ways of managing and tracking work-based learning and the effective use of e-Portfolios was the area covered by Paul Greenhalgh, Skillwise, and Gordon Coombe of Edinburgh City Council. Click here to view Paul Greenhalgh's interview.

Gordon McBride then offered a detailed review of the Scottish Funding Formula, detailing the specific spreadsheet used to calculate college funding. The session also looked at the new staff aggregate return, due to come into force next year. Click here to view Gordon McBride's interview.

The final keynote of the Convention was given by Maureen Falconer, of the Information Commissioner’s Office. Concluding an event that focussed on the power of information systems, her topic of data protection and privacy was a timely reminder that the data held by organisations is often personal and confidential, requiring high levels of attention and care. Click here to view Maureen Falconer's interview.