News / Top marks for Shetland College
SHETLAND College has received a glowing report from HM Inspectors following a visit last October.
In their report published on Friday, Education Scotland declared the Lerwick-based college to be only the second in the country to receive the top grade of “effective”.
College board chairman Drew Ratter heaped praise upon interim college principal Irene Peterson for her hard work since taking on the post after her predecessor David Gray resigned 12 months ago to move to Canada.
However inspectors cautioned that the shortage of senior management at the college, with Peterson still acting as depute principal and head of Train Shetland, could threaten the future success of the institution.
The report comes at a busy time for the college, which expects its £4.6 million extension to be completed by April this year, six months behind schedule.
The council is also planning to merge the college with Scalloway’s NAFC Marine Centre and Train Shetland to become a single independent entity.
Peterson said she was delighted with the report and praised her colleagues and students for their hard work.
“We would not have been able to achieve this outcome without the diligence and energy of all our staff, our students and our board,” she said.
Ratter said he believed the report provided “a good platform” to move ahead with the merger plans.
“This has been a bit vague so far and I think over the next month or two we have to focus very strongly on that and make significant progress and understand where we are going,” he said.
He added that he hoped the new extension would create a “bit more buzz” about the college, which currently did not have enough room to generate a college atmosphere for day to day student life.
Ratter welcomed the Education Scotland report, which showed the college had shot well above the 64 per cent national average for students completing full time courses over the past three years – up from 63 to 77 per cent and then down to 73 per cent last year.
Inspectors were particular impressed with the art and design course, which provides a wide range of experience for students to help them make a living as self-employed artists, including vocational placements in Norway.
The board chairman reserved special credit for the acting principal for working tirelessly “day and night” to raise and maintain standards at the college.
“I would like to give a considerable amount of appreciation to Irene Peterson for the work that she’s done as interim principal – that has been a great help,” he said.
Responding to the inspectors’ concerns that the lack of senior staff could jeopardise to college’s future, he said that he believed that once the council had agreed a merger plan for tertiary education in Shetland they should start recruiting for a permanent principal for the new organisation.
Plans for a new chair of creative industries to be based at the college are ongoing, he added.
Shetland College has 92 students in full time education and 1,200 part time learners working from its Gremista campus in Lerwick and nine outlying learning centres.
It runs further education courses in art and design, business, community learning, computing, construction, engineering, health and care, hospitality and music.
It also has a wide range of vocational pathways for school pupils, including sound engineering and hairdressing.
The college has a budget of £2.8 million, almost 60 per cent of which comes from the Scottish Funding Council.
The inspectors’ report can be found here.
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