Colleges must plan to improve

Scotland's 47 further education colleges have been given a December deadline to produce action plans to improve the way they are run, writes Olga Wojtas.

The Scottish Further Education Funding Council called for the plans after a pilot investigation of 12 colleges by consultants KPMG.

The SFEFC said there was "readily apparent" good practice in the sector. But Liam McCabe, the SFEFC's director of financial appraisal and monitoring, said: "This broad positive finding needs to be tempered with the recognition that all good practice will not be found in every college and all colleges can learn something."

The SFEFC now aims to work with colleges to ensure that benchmarking, critical self-evaluation and continuous improvement are embedded in the sector, he said. It has drawn up a list of 37 "challenge questions" to board members and 41 to college principals to help them benchmark themselves.