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LEWS Castle College aims to re-invent itself as the "Avon lady of education" in order to become a true community college.
The metaphor was employed by David Green, new principal of Lews Castle College, as he announced a college make-over that will see them tailoring learning to individual needs. The foundation of the new look college will be a needs analysis to discover what type of subjects will entice more people into further education - and knocking on doors hasn't been ruled out.
Remarked Mr Green: "We have to show people what we have to offer as their understanding of further education may be based on previous experience or on the traditional sense of further education. This will mean mailshots and literally knocking on doors of individual homes and carrying out a needs analysis at an individual level. We will be the Avon ladies of education."
Explaining the background, Mr Green, who has succeeded Mr Mick Roebuck as college head, said that further education colleges have to have a broad customer base if they are to identify themselves as a community college. An immediate step is to start meeting with individuals and groups to elicit their educational demands, and make them aware that learning opportunities exist both at the college and through home based study. Over the coming months Lews Castle College will strive to become more proactive in selling themselves and customising programmes of learning to suit individual needs and employment prospects.
Said Mr Green: "We have to get away from the sense of place. The college is much more than the campus, the people and the buildings, it has to be something separate right across the community. Throughout the Islands, there has to be an awareness of the college presence and more of a sense of ownership."
The Information Technology (IT) links will play an important part in this community college development and in greatly increasing access to further education regardless of geography. While the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) project is to invest heavily in the new communications technology, there is still a big role for the more traditional text-based teaching methods like distance and open learning.
A stumbling block, though, is presented by the current way in which the further education colleges in the UHI network are revenue funded; the formula used does not take account of the extra costs involved in operating in the Islands. But it is hoped the Government will act on the recommendations of a consultants report widely believed to urge greater funding for Lews Castle College and other rural area colleges.
In two years' time, the college principal predicts talk will not be of students doing courses, but of programmes of study as a result of a massive switch away from set courses to individual programmes of learning.
Meanwhile, the £10 million extension of the college campus takes another step forward with the appointment of the Glasgow-based Mackenzie Partnership as project managers. Within the next two months a project design team will also be appointed. Tenders for the building contract are expected to be invited in August and building work, it is hoped, commenced before the end of this year.
The last piece of finance is expected to be finalised in the early summer when the Objective One Fund considers the college's funding application. It is anticipated Objective One will pump in up to £3 million. Financial assistance has already been promised by Comhairle nan Eilean, Western Isles Enterprise and the Millennium Commission, with the Scottish Office picking up the balance after the Objective One grant award.
As well as creating construction jobs, the £10 million development will provide an additional 20 teaching posts and allows Lews Castle to teach four of the 36 degree courses to be offered by the UHI network.
The degrees are rural development, which is to see its first students graduate in June, computer science, business studies and environmental heritage. Original article Stornoway Gazette Feb 14 1997.
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