23 December 2011

A wise Bressay sage held forth outside the shop the other week on the subject of learning. You never stop learning was his basic contention whether on animal husbandry, the ups and downs of the Arab Spring or the challenges of being the perfect husband. In today’s world this can loosely be interpreted as lifelong learning. It matters more at difficult economic times when people are worried about their jobs. For young and old this puts a heavy onus on the local college as it provides a range of vocational courses that school leavers can pursue.

So a current Scottish Government proposal that could change the range of courses available in Shetland needs some careful assessment. Shetland College have just submitted their response and make some important observations about local circumstances and what our Island economy needs.

Unfortunately the Scottish Government wants a centralising approach which would lump us in with the rest of the Highlands and Islands. As all colleges have less money which inevitably means less courses, the Government believes that school leavers should simply travel to another college for the course. That will work in large urban areas with good public transport and therefore makes a lot of sense. But in island Scotland this centralising approach will not deliver more for less or even the same for less. Less will be less. Shetland College is the provider of vocational courses. A reduced college curriculum means that local school leavers will simply have no choice. Transport costs mean school leavers do not have the mobility of young people in and around Inverness. That’s before accommodation is considered. It’s why Shetland College needs to have as full a range of courses as possible.

Shetland’s submission also makes a telling point about local jobs.The ancient professions of law, accountancy and learning mean a university degree is taken in one of Scotland’s big cities. The vocational choice for local school leavers is therefore more important than ever because Shetland has a far lower number of law, accountancy or academic jobs than Glasgow or Dundee.