2008 Woodie Awards
Colleges stay abreast of employers' expectations
Overseas institutions are aiming high for student achievement and experience to gain advantage in workplace environments.
By Jason B. Hogan
Issue date: 6/30/08 Section: News
Originally published: 7/11/08 at 4:51 PM CSTLast update: 9/4/08 at 2:08 PM CST
Education in a global environment is on an upswing, and it has institutions worldwide preparing themselves for the everchanging employers' markets.
John McCann, deputy executive for the Scottish Furthering Education Unit, a Scottish national organization that supports colleges, addressed Alamo Community College District faculty members May 29 in Killen Center about a growing need for institutions to challenge their students based on employers' market expectations.
"We could transform lives giving students the rights, opportunity and support to go to college," McCann said.
Colleges are an integral part in all sectors of today's society, McCann said. They fit in everywhere and are a central theme, including employment and the local community.
During the week, 13 delegates arrived from Scotland and Northern Ireland to promote international relations with other college communities.
McCann lectured on the similarities and differences of Scotland's colleges and the district colleges, hoping to bring new methods of change for the district, as well as extracting a few to take back home.
In his lecture, McCann stressed the importance of an educational framework that was developed in Scotland through their political system and enhanced at the institutional level with a more direct emphasis on the faculty and student body.
"It's the learning that is significant," McCann said. "Colleges exist for the student to learn, not for teachers to teach."
But student learning is not the same as student achievement, McCann warned the attendants.
Students in Scotland's colleges are required to complete the first 25 percent of the course before the curriculum and teaching methods are deemed to be of any type of success.
"With this new measure, the temptation to make students succeed, who may not have been successful, is great," McCann said.
The framework is arranged to include student and institutional measures of achievement: learning and teaching process; learner progress and outcomes; educational leadership, direction and management; student access and inclusion; guidance and support; resources and services to support the learner; staff; quality assurance; and quality improvement.
John McCann, deputy executive for the Scottish Furthering Education Unit, a Scottish national organization that supports colleges, addressed Alamo Community College District faculty members May 29 in Killen Center about a growing need for institutions to challenge their students based on employers' market expectations.
"We could transform lives giving students the rights, opportunity and support to go to college," McCann said.
Colleges are an integral part in all sectors of today's society, McCann said. They fit in everywhere and are a central theme, including employment and the local community.
During the week, 13 delegates arrived from Scotland and Northern Ireland to promote international relations with other college communities.
McCann lectured on the similarities and differences of Scotland's colleges and the district colleges, hoping to bring new methods of change for the district, as well as extracting a few to take back home.
In his lecture, McCann stressed the importance of an educational framework that was developed in Scotland through their political system and enhanced at the institutional level with a more direct emphasis on the faculty and student body.
"It's the learning that is significant," McCann said. "Colleges exist for the student to learn, not for teachers to teach."
But student learning is not the same as student achievement, McCann warned the attendants.
Students in Scotland's colleges are required to complete the first 25 percent of the course before the curriculum and teaching methods are deemed to be of any type of success.
"With this new measure, the temptation to make students succeed, who may not have been successful, is great," McCann said.
The framework is arranged to include student and institutional measures of achievement: learning and teaching process; learner progress and outcomes; educational leadership, direction and management; student access and inclusion; guidance and support; resources and services to support the learner; staff; quality assurance; and quality improvement.
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