Choose a subject

Choose subject:

Sub navigation:

In this section

Anniesland College

Core Skills at the centre of curriculum design and delivery

Anniesland College - building photo The following is based on a presentation to the Scottish Learning Festival in September 2008.

This Core Skills project set out to construct a vocationally transferable framework that would promote the Curriculum for Excellence capacities. The college was keen to support the development of independent, successful learners who would appreciate the value of Core Skills and confidently use these skills in a wide range of contexts.

Assessment opportunities to provide evidence for certification of Core Skills at SCQF levels 3 and 4 were developed and signposted in a mind map, with checklists to ensure coverage of competencies. The CfE capacities influenced the choice of topics and activities. Opportunities for personalisation and choice were built into the project design at the planning stage while the vocational contexts of the projects supported the development of employability skills.

The project was led by a Core Skills team which included Core Skills specialists from different areas of the college. It was a challenge to establish a shared understanding and to move away from seeing the Core Skills as discrete subjects. Staff were comfortable with linking to vocational areas but less comfortable about working across the five Core Skill areas.

Once the project template was agreed, staff developed activities to provide both learning opportunities and opportunities to capture and record assessment evidence. The regular team meetings were very useful in keeping everything on-track and meshing the different Core Skills requirements into vocational activities. We spent a considerable amount of time talking directly to staff in the vocational areas to make sure that our project proposals were feasible and linked to the learners' work in the vocational Units.

We very much hope that our approach will raise the profile of Core Skills and encourage learners to see the long-term benefits of Core Skills acquisition and certification. We hope that the Curriculum for Excellence principles of enjoyment and relevance will take over from 'we did this at school', 'it's boring', 'we are on a motor vehicle course, why do we have to do this?'. We also hope to see improvements in key performance indicators, particularly retention and attainment.

The following video provides an overview of Anniesland College's Action Research Project: