Great progress has been made within the college sector in working with small to medium enterprises (SMEs) in recent years.
A wide variety of course provision is now targeted directly at, or recognised as highly relevant to, small businesses, covering everything from care to gas safety to management and IT. However, there is still some way to go before the challenge of working successfully with SMEs has been fully met.
A joint initiative was launched by learndirect scotland and the college sector focusing on the part that e-learning and - more broadly - blended learning can play in helping to meet this challenge.
The initiative was based on a set of small-scale interventions by colleges, involving work with SMEs in areas such as construction, retail, care and hospitality. It also encompassed work-based support with core skills. T
The project explored more effective means of marketing to and communicating with SMEs, and working more closely and effectively with individual learners.
The success of these projects led to a major research and development initiative aimed at Enhancing College / SME Blended Learning Networks (ECOSME), launched by a consortium of 10 colleges, the Scottish Further Education Unit (SFEU) and learndirect scotland.
Craig Thomson, Principal of Glenrothese College, explained: “The objective of the work is to produce research-based and peer informed guidance that will enable college resources to be more effectively used in work with SMEs. In particular, this national project will help to ensure that SMEs benefit fully from the potential of e-learning/blended learning to deliver the workforce development needed for success in a knowledge-based economy.
“Building on the work of the earlier, smaller scale projects, ECOSME will be based on a clear appreciation of the need to reconfigure the ways in which learning is currently presented or facilitated if the real potential of ICT is to be realised. Although ECOSME is a national project, it will lead to significant local action. In addition to the national partnership underpinning ECOSME, each college will be responsible for liaison with their local learning partnership and economic forums.”
ECOSME is intended to develop practice and knowledge by, for example, reviewing key issues around the factors that determine the “learning preparedness” of an enterprise and the workforce change management processes needed to ensure that colleges and their staff can respond to the challenge of making most effective use of e-learning in working with SMEs.
It will help to ensure more effective use of public investment in college ICT capacity to meet the learning needs of SMEs, achieve further development of materials and methodologies that are fully effective in supporting learning in SMEs, establish better practice on the part of SMEs – developing capacity for and engagement in learning and develop enhanced competitiveness through the development and use of knowledge at work.
The partners involved are Borders College, Cardonald College, Cumbernauld College, Dumfries and Galloway College, Fife College of Further and Higher Education, Glenrothes College, Kilmarnock College, learndirect scotland, Reid Kerr College, SFEU, Stevenson College, West Lothian College.