The School-College: Raising Attainment Through Partnerships event took place on Tuesday 19 and Wednesday 20 September 2017 at Hilton Dunblane.

Jamie Hepburn MSP, Minister for Employability and Training, opened the conference after meeting pupils involved in Vex Robotics competitions and trying his hand at ‘driving’ a robot.

 

Watch Jamie Hepburn MSP speech below:

He spoke to delegates about the importance of STEM developments within the context of raising attainment.

Pupils, teachers and college lecturers from New College Lanarkshire, Airdrie Academy and Braidhurst High School involved in the Vex Robotics project spoke to delegates about the motivational aspects of this sort of activity. One group of girls spoke about how it had provided them with a fantastic opportunity to get involved in STEM subjects.

‘Only 9% of women work in tech’, say Young women from Vex Robotics – who intend to change that statistic.

Dr Iain MacRitchie of MCR Pathways spoke about an inspirational mentoring model which provides nurtures the talents and potential of care experienced young people.

 

Impact of MCR’s purposed-based relationships:

 

Karen Corbett, HM Inspector of Education, and Joan Mackay, Assistant Director, at Education Scotland, spoke of the partnership opportunities offered through the new quality arrangements and Developing the Young Workforce.

Elaine Walls, Regional Partnership and Delivery Manager, at Skills Development Scotland spoke about work-based learning.

She outlined the OECD attributes of successful learning systems as:

And provided detail on how the Apprenticeship family seeks to achieve this.

Kevin Lowden, Senior Researcher in the Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change looked at how policy has driven partnership working and examined how effective this has been so far.

Sara Turkington, Equality and Inclusion Advisor at Ayrshire College looked at the impact of partnership working on equalities.