Innovative partnerships. In partnership with Edinburgh, Fife and Forth Valley Colleges we created a new East Central Scotland College Collaboration to explore new ways of working including co- design, co-development and co-delivery across our four regions. The college is working in partnership with Heriot-Watt University, Scottish Enterprise and a range of companies to establish a Centre for Regulated Bio-Manufacture. While the outcome of this bid will not be known until April 2021, success would support collaborative work to develop industry-relevant curriculum in bio-manufacturing. This would see improved articulation prospects for students and shorter learner journeys from college to university. The college would also secure the right to access to the Centre for Bio-Manufacture at Heriot-Watt and benefit from improved facilities on campus with £60k for lab remodelling and £190k for materials. Innovation in the curriculum We aim to continue to be an early adopter of new approaches to curriculum design and delivery. Working with partners, we will leverage opportunities brought about by the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Regional Deal, in particular related to digital and construction skills. The college will build on its innovative partnerships with companies like Xxxxxxxx Construction to evaluate vocational courses co-designed with them. In 2019-20 the college integrated outdoor learning into our childhood practice curriculum and delivered this with children from local nurseries and primary schools in our forest classroom. We will further develop learning opportunities for outdoor learning which benefit our students, staff, stakeholders and young people in nursery, primary and secondary settings. Established in 2019-20, we will evaluate the projects funded by the college’s Learning and Teaching Innovation Fund and adapt the parameters of the fund to incorporate lessons learned. The Fund will open for applications in 2021 for the 2021-22 academic year. Innovation in physical and virtual learning spaces In summer 2021 the college will repurpose the ground floor of the main campus building to create a modern learning resource centre supported by flexible technology-enabled learning spaces for individual and group study. While this will make the most effective use of our existing physical space, ultimately, we need to build an extension to create additional learning spaces for students. We will investigate what that might cost and explore funding options for 2021-22. Engagin...
