Employer engagement event
I attended an employer engagement event, at Glasgow Clyde College, yesterday entitled Shaping Computing Science for Scotland. The event was organised by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and SQA. Its aim was to discuss how best to get employers involved with the development of Computing qualifications. The event was well attended with representatives of large and small employers across Scotland.
My presentation covered the current range of qualifications available, how we develop qualifications, and how we currently work with employers. I’ve previously posted about the various committees that we work with. Employers are represented on the Sector Panel and Qualification Development Teams. They are particularly influential on the Sector Panel, which provides strategic advice to SQA about what’s happening externally and what we should be doing. But we are constantly looking for more employer representation.
We had interesting discussions about the barriers to employer engagement – the main one being lack of time. So we discussed “smarter” ways of getting employers involved that minimise the time that they would have to commit. There were lots of good ideas.
The event wasn’t a “talk shop”. SDS is determined to use the event to improve the ways that employer and the education community work together. Look out for more news about this in future posts. In the meantime, contact Debbie McCutcheon (SDS) if you want to know more about the event or SDS’s plans for improved employer engagement. Or contact Helen if you are interested in serving on any of SQA’s committees.
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