As colleges and universities across Scotland look ahead to the next academic year, if you’ve not already made your plans, now is a good time to think about how your institution will deliver Course Rep Training in 2026-27! Further to our news article in early April, we want to give another reminder that early planning can help you decide what model will work best for your students, your staff capacity and your wider approach to student representation.
Training plays an important role in helping course reps understand their role, build confidence and contribute effectively to quality enhancement and the Student Learning Experience. sparqs can support institutions in different ways, whether you want training delivered for you, want to build your own student trainer model, or want to strengthen in-house staff delivery.
One option is for sparqs Associate Trainers to deliver Course Rep Training to your students either online or in person. This can be a helpful approach if you want a ready-made model with experienced facilitators and materials already in place, while still offering training that supports reps to engage effectively in representation and partnership. See our CRT overview webpage for more information.
A second option is to recruit your own Institutional Associate Trainers (IATs). Under this model, institutions appoint student trainers who attend sparqs training and then go on to deliver Course Rep Training within their own college or university. If you are considering this route for 2026-27, it is worth starting recruitment planning early so that your student trainers are in place in time for the annual training event. See our IAT scheme webpage for more information.
A third option is to send a staff member to learn how to deliver Course Rep Training. sparqs can support staff who plan to deliver training in-house by offering places at our training event, giving colleagues the chance to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence needed to facilitate training for reps at their own institution. See our Introductory CRT webpage for more information on the opportunity for your staff to join our annual residential training in late August.
Each of these options offers a different way to prepare for the year ahead, and the right choice will depend on your local context, available capacity and how you want Course Rep Training to fit within your wider student engagement work. Thinking about your approach now can make it easier to put the right arrangements in place well before the start of term. See our CRT options and support document for more information.
Our annual training for all of these options, takes place at Queen Margaret University from Monday 24th August to Thursday 27th August 2026 and is free in most cases.
Queries and further information
If you would like to discuss the options available for 2026-27 and what might work best for your institution, please contact Nicola Cameron, Business Manager, at nicola.cameron@sparqs.ac.uk.