As we make our way through lockdown, it is often difficult to find reasons to be cheerful. Most of us, particularly in Scotland, are stuck at home and it’s become really hard to find upsides.

But they are out there. Across the country, individuals and organisations have stepped up and gone far beyond what is expected of them in order to keep us all safe.

Scotland’s college sector has been at the forefront of this effort. All around Scotland, colleges have used their resources, expertise, drive and imagination to allow us to help the communities and regions we serve.

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At Dumfries and Galloway College, some examples of how we have responded include donating our food stocks, unleashing our fleet of vehicles to help deliver essential goods, returning our staff to frontline services, and moving our learning and teaching online as part of our effort.

However, the immediate challenge - that of keeping people safe and ensuring they have everything they need - is not the only one we face.

A Team Scotland approach 

This wholesale shutdown of public and private life in Scotland will have serious and challenging economic consequences. Businesses, organisations and individuals are feeling the weight of economic uncertainty on their shoulders and, unfortunately, there will be those who face significant hardship, stress and other difficulties, such as student poverty. We must be there to help and support them.

Getting the Scottish economy back on track will require our entire country to come together as one and adopt a Team Scotland approach. While this is undoubtedly a massive challenge, we’ve shown that we have what it takes to do it as a network of skilled professionals and collaborative leadership.

We can be safe in the knowledge that throughout Scotland’s fantastic colleges we have the innovation and imagination to help our economy bounce back from Covid-19. For instance, at Dumfries and Galloway College, we closed our campus and immediately moved as much of our learning and teaching online as we possibly could. This has allowed us to keep our students learning and working towards their qualifications and, in doing so, continuing to upskill or reskill themselves for their futures. It is my firm belief that we, as a sector, can harness this attitude and way of working to be agents of real economic change when life begins to normalise.

To address the digital poverty obstacles that are part of this, we have been working with local employers to distribute IT equipment and have provided mobile wi-fi to help people in our region get connected. In addition, we are also offering podcasts and free online training aimed at people looking to upskill or retrain.

Resuming normal life

Furthermore, we have also planned for resuming normal life.

We will continue to comply fully with the recent Scottish government announcement on the easing of lockdown and will not return students to our campuses before it is safe to do so. We have planned for a phased return and will be ready to implement our plan as soon as we are given the green light. Preparedness like this has made us essential during Covid-19 and will make colleges indispensable in the recovery and beyond.

When we move into the post-lockdown period of dealing with coronavirus in our communities and across the country, we will need to be flexible and incorporate new ways of working into our lives.

Open-minded thinking and fresh approaches will help us to deal with the fallout of the pandemic and the medium- and long-term economic consequences it will leave behind. There is nowhere in our country that you will find these in more abundance than in our colleges.

At Dumfries and Galloway College, in coordination and cooperation with our friends and colleagues at other colleges, we will develop our curriculum to support priority sectors and we will focus on part-time and online delivery. Our curriculum will continue to be digital and will support career-long professional learning in the move towards a more digitised approach to teaching.

We will also concentrate on retraining and upskilling in those sectors key for the South of Scotland and with a specific focus on the need to support the digital and meta skills required to equip our students for the future workforce. We will also continue social distancing requirements and provide an online start to our 2020-21 college year.

Further to that, we will continue to reach out to partners, including our neighbours on the Crichton campus, to develop new opportunities to work together. We want to be prepared for when life returns to normal, and I’m confident we will be.

Nobody should be under any false pretences that getting the Scottish economy back on its feet will be quick or easy - it simply won’t be. However, amid the uncertainty and difficulty that we will face, Dumfries and Galloway College alongside the other colleges in Scotland are already doing everything we can to help and lead the way.

We are a resourceful and innovative country and our colleges are hubs of both qualities within that. With the resources, skills, talents and vision that we have, I’m confident that our colleges can step up further and drive Scotland’s return to prosperity for the good of all.

Joanna Campbell is the principal of Dumfries and Galloway College