Much has been said, and written, in recent weeks about the impact of Covid-19 on further education and the need to embrace new ways of learning. The FE sector, as it always does, has responded magnificently and there are numerous examples of staff in colleges innovating in the delivery of learning as well as in responding to their community needs around the virus. Further education is known as the “can-do sector” and whether it be recession, boom time, banking crisis or pandemic, it always delivers.

This current crisis will mean that unemployment rises, jobs are lost, and young people are disproportionately affected. The FE sector will be asked, as it was in the last recession, to ensure that we don’t create a lost generation and will subsequently ramp up activity for the affected cohorts.

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As we come out of lockdown and the country tries to rebuild its economy, we have to consider the skill needs of business both in the short and long term; not just within the confines of Scotland or the UK but well beyond our shores. If this pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we are part of a global economy that impacts us all.

Learning from WorldSkills

The global response to the pandemic will mean that those countries with an appropriately skilled workforce will adapt quickest and most successfully to the upturn when it happens. We must learn lessons from the last recession when many apprenticeships were lost. Some industries have struggled to recover to 2008 levels.

WorldSkills UK is part of an international movement that focuses on skills excellence and celebrates the best of our young people in skills competitions. I was in Kazan, Russia (as was president Vladimir Putin), to view the WorldSkills finals in August 2019 and was amazed by the scale and size of the event.

The emphasis that many nations place on skills success and achievement is impressive and I have to say I was immensely proud of the five Scots in Team UK, who performed fantastically well on the international stage, returning home with two medallions of excellence.

Scotland already has a good record of success in placing team members for the Euros and World finals with Team UK and has an unparalleled record in the WorldSkills UK national finals. Indeed, Scotland leads the way, having topped the UK medal table for the past seven years in a row.

But WorldSkills is about much more than competitions for young people. It’s about up-to-date research based on best practice from across the world and the adoption of international standards that are reviewed and refreshed over a two-year cycle.

Centres of skills excellence

The current WorldSkills UK Productivity Lab initiative builds on recent research conducted by SKOPE (The Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisation Performance), at the University of Oxford, which highlights the benefits of adopting best practice in achieving skills excellence through utilising techniques used in training UK squad members to go further, faster. Other research commissioned by WorldSkills UK highlights countries, such as China and Switzerland, that have aligned themselves to the concept of driving up standards and productivity through focusing on excellence in skills development.

A significant outcome of the research is the recommendation that Centres of Excellence be established to share learning from the WorldSkills process and understand how it can be mainstreamed into current skills training in colleges and the workplace.

These Centres of Excellence, in partnership with national awarding organisation NCFE, will aim to promote and advance technical learning, support educators gain high-performing and industry relevant skills, provide students and apprentices with increased confidence and give employers a more highly qualified and performing young workforce.

They are due to come on stream as a pilot in autumn 2020 and colleges across the UK are being invited to apply to be part of the initiative.

The recent Cumberford-Little report on FE highlighted the need for skills to be the cornerstone of our economy and valued and celebrated here in Scotland, just as they are in countries such as Germany, France and Russia.

Given the track record of Scotland in successfully competing at WorldSkills competitions and supplying a stream of talent, not only from the student body but also from highly talented training managers, I would hope that colleges in Scotland would apply to be part of the Centre of Excellence programme. I appreciate that finance and resource commitment in these challenging times will have other priorities but in many ways it’s even more important that national and international best practice is evaluated, understood and shared across our sector.

As our digital journey progresses, we may even embrace the notion of a virtual Centre of Excellence for Scotland. Either way, it’s too good an opportunity to miss.

The closing date for applications for the WorldSkills UK Centre of Excellence is 2 June. Colleges can apply at www.worldskillsuk.org

Martin McGuire is director for Scotland at WorldSkills UK and former principal of New College Lanarkshire, Motherwell, Adam Smith and Cumbernauld colleges