Professional
Standards for Lecturers in Scotland's
Colleges
In
November 2002, the then Minister for
Enterprise, Transport and Learning
Iain Gray announced a full-scale review
of the occupational standards for
college lecturers. The main aims of
this review were to expand provision
for continuing professional development
and update the content of the standards
in light of recent developments in
the policy, legislative and learning
and teaching contexts. The most important
of these changes were:
 |
The
recommendations in the report
by the Advisory Committee on Post-school
Education and Training for Young
People, usually referred to as
the Beattie Committee, on the
training of teaching staff; |
 |
The
introduction of new diversity
legislation such as the Special
Educational Needs and Disability
Act 2000 and the Race Relations
(Amendment) Act 2000; |
 |
Developments
in the use of information and
communications technology (ICT)
for learning and teaching purposes;
and |
 |
Changes
in the role and responsibilities
of college lecturers which meant
that some now had roles as curriculum
team leaders. |
The
review began with a large scale consultation
exercise in 2003. Following the analysis
of responses to this exercise (see
'Documents'
page), a set of five working groups
- comprising a mix of practitioners
and experts from the FE sector and
beyond - were set up to actually revise
the occupational standards in terms
of the areas of priority that the
consultation exercise had identified.
This work culminated in June 2006
with the publication of the new 'Professional
Standards for Lecturers in Scotland's
Colleges', which effectively replaced
the National Guidelines as the key
source of information on all matters
pertaining to the professional training
of college lecturers in Scotland.
To
access a .pdf version of the document,
please click on the image at the top
of this page.
|