Colleges offer a wide
range of mainly vocational courses at non-advanced and advanced levels.
Most consist of units (listed in the SQA catalogue) tailored to the
needs of particular employment sectors or to individual student needs.
Colleges can construct programmes to suit the needs of specific
industries (for example, the building or semi-conductor industries) or
the particular needs of local employers.
At non-advanced level, several different types of course meet the needs of industry and students:
vocational and general education for post-16 students and trainees;
link courses for school pupils;
industrial pre-employment training, serving specific employer needs or the requirements of the Local Enterprise Companies;
off-the-job training for employees, including those on training schemes such as Skillseekers; and
vocational and non-vocational evening classes.
Building on well-established links, colleges now offer many up-dating and re-training courses for local industries.
Typical programmes of study are, for example:
programmes
leading to Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQ), some jointly
certificated by the SQA and another awarding body such as City and
Guilds or a professional body;
programmes
leading to national awards which prepare students for broad employment
opportunities, including progression to further or higher education;
these may also include credits towards Scottish Vocational
Qualifications (SVQ); and
programmes
devised to suit particular industry or business needs, for example, a
programme for multi-disciplinary engineering technicians from a
petro-chemical plant; or a re-training programme.
Most courses lead to the
Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) National Certificate or a National Progression Award.
Advanced level courses offered by colleges lead to
Higher National Certificates and
Higher National Diplomas
(HNC and HND). HNCs and HNDs are long-established vocational
qualifications covering a diverse and growing range of employment
sectors.
Following an extensive consultation process, SQA agreed
in March 2003 new design principles for HNCs and HNDs, to ensure that
HN Group Awards continue to meet the current and future needs of those
using the qualifications.
All HNs will be revalidated by 2008,
benchmarked against the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework
(SCQF) levels and allocated SCQF credit points. HNCs will be at SCQF
level 7 and will have 96 credit points. HNDs will be at SCQF level 8
and will have 240 credit points.
All Higher National Units are now written to a Unit specification, which explains:
the knowledge and skills to be taught
what the student has to achieve
the standard to which the student has to perform
the evidence required for assessment
During
the period 2004 to 2008 some HN Units and Group Awards are validated
according to the old (1998) design rules and others according to the
2003 principles.
Universities and Higher Education Institutions
Subjects
offered by Scottish higher education institutions include: Accountancy;
Agriculture and Forestry; American Studies; Archaeology; Architecture;
Art, Fine Art and Design; Biological Sciences; Building;
Business/Management Studies; Chemical Sciences; Classics and Classical
Civilisation; Computing/Information Studies; Consumer Studies;
Dentistry; Divinity, Religious Studies and Theology; Drama Studies and
Media Studies; Economics; Education and Teacher Education; Engineering;
English; Environmental Studies/Health Studies; European Studies;
Geography and Geology; Historical Studies; Hotel/Hospitality
Management; Languages; Law and Legal Studies; Librarianship;
Linguistics; Marine Sciences; Mathematics; Medicine; Medicine-related
subjects; Middle Eastern Studies; Music; Nursing and Midwifery;
Pharmacy; Philosophy; Physical Sciences; Politics and International
Relations; Printing and Publishing; Psychology; Public Policy and
Administration; Science Studies; Scottish Studies; Slavonic and East
European Studies; Sociology, Social Anthropology, Social Policy and
Social Work; Sports Studies, Recreation and Leisure; Statistics;
Surveying and Planning; Textiles; and Veterinary Medicine.
Some
of these subjects can be studied only in a small number of
institutions. Linguistics, for example, is available only at the
University of Edinburgh, and Slavonic Studies only at the University of
Glasgow; Pharmacy and Librarianship are offered only by the Robert
Gordon University and Strathclyde University and Veterinary Medicine
only by the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. On the other hand,
16 of the higher education institutions have Business and Management
Studies. Higher education institutions also vary in the number of
subjects they offer. The Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow teach 37
of the areas listed above and the Universities of Dundee and
Strathclyde 34. At the other end of the scale, some institutions, such
as Edinburgh College of Art, Glasgow School of Art and the Royal
Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, offer a much smaller number of
specialised subjects. Students can undertake post-graduate study and
research leading to higher degrees in all the institutions.
EN 
CS
DE
ES
FR
HU
IT
PL
PT
РУ
SK
TR
УК
AR
中文
