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The Lifelong Learning Strategy for Scotland
Our vision for Lifelong Learning in Scotland
The best possible match between the learning opportunities open to people and the skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviours which will strengthen Scotland's economy and society.
Five Goals
There are 5 people-centred goals that will realise the vision
- A Scotland where people have the confidence, enterprise, knowledge, creativity and skills they need to participate in economic, social and civic life
- A Scotland where people demand and providers deliver a high quality learning experience
- A Scotland where people's knowledge and skills are recognised, used and developed to best effect in their workplace
- A Scotland where people are given the information, guidance and support they need to make effective learning decisions and transitions
- A Scotland where people have the chance to learn, irrespective of their background or current personal circumstances
1 Introduction
"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn."
Alvin Toffler (Futurist)
- Lifelong learning: our definition
- Lifelong learning: why we invest
- Lifelong learning: demand and supply
Lifelong learning: our definition
Lifelong learning policy in Scotland is about personal fulfilment and enterprise; employability and adaptability; active citizenship and social inclusion.
This strategy document is principally concerned with post-compulsory education, training and learning. Lifelong learning encompasses the whole range of learning: formal and informal learning, workplace learning, and the skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviours that people acquire in day-to-day experiences.
Lifelong learning: why we invest
Investment in quality-assured learning offers benefits to the individual, to the economy and to wider society. The knowledge, skills, competencies and other attributes people acquire through learning, contribute to economic activity. Their economic behaviour, especially in the way their accumulation of knowledge and skills enables them to improve their position in the labour market, increases productivity and earnings, and collectively enhances the society in which they live. Investment in knowledge and skills brings direct economic returns to individuals and collective economic returns to society.
But people are not solely interested in their potential for earning. We live in a society where diversity of background, culture, knowledge and skills should be valued and nurtured. We want a society where people actively engage in their communities, local and national, and learning can enable people to do that. Lifelong learning contributes to the development of society through the achievement of other social goals such as civic participation, sustainable development, improved health and wellbeing, reduced crime and greater social cohesion.
"the availability of opportunities to learn throughout life is crucial to the well being of any society, to strengthen its economy, enrich its culture and liberate its citizens."
ELLC evidence, STUC
At least four key sets of factors determine people's participation in learning: - individual disposition and attitudes towards learning
- social environment
- economic and financial context
- institutional factors.
The various aspirations and motivations of future learners vary according to their personal situations and may change over time. The decision to undertake some form of learning after school or to interrupt a period of employment is variously dependent on personal, social and economic circumstances. A person's perception of their learning experience can be negative for a wide variety of reasons. This can have major implications for personal confidence and the likelihood of their responding to promotion and marketing and creation of new learning opportunities. For these people, often from disadvantaged backgrounds, a process of proactive engagement and confidence building and support is required before participation in a formal learning context is a realistic possibility. |
We need to ensure that whatever learning a person takes is of the highest quality, relevant to their needs and abilities and offers value for money. The risk otherwise is de-motivation and a waste of individuals' and organisations' time and money.
Lifelong Learning: demand and supply
We believe in investing public money in lifelong learning. But how do we decide where to invest? Our strategy is to influence key aspects of both the supply of, and the demand for, learning in Scotland and to ensure that adequate information, advice and guidance is made available to inform people's choices.
Diagram 1
This diagram provides a stylised representation of the flows of supply and demand for education and training. There are two markets at work here - the labour market and the learning market - and three critical groups; individuals, employers and learning providers.
In the labour market, individuals supply the skills and knowledge demanded by employers. In the learning market, private and publicly-funded organisations, such as educational institutions and learning centres, contribute to the supply of learning that both employers and individuals demand. There is interaction between the two markets. For example, the learning market exists in part because individuals want to acquire skills which they believe employers want, but there is no definitive explanation of exactly how one causes change in the other. Skills gaps are more likely to arise because of deficiencies in the way the labour market works rather than in the learning market.
No market works perfectly; and remedying market failure is a legitimate role for government. This can be through influencing the level and rate of supply; stimulating, moderating or supporting demand; and in ensuring there is adequate information about the market.
For the learning market, government attention and resources have generally been concentrated on the supply side. The great majority of public expenditure is devoted to the support of institutional provision. This continues to be very important, and resources have been made available to increase considerably the capacity of the higher and further education sectors, and training providers, to grow the scale of their provision. More recently, greater effort has been made to stimulate and support demand through resources to reform existing streams of learner support and introduce new resources to stimulate and support demand where it has been weak. How best to achieve a balance between supporting supply and supporting demand within necessarily limited resources is a key issue. Also more recently, steps have been taken to improve greatly the level of information available to both learners and providers about the learning and labour markets.
In this document, we outline the actions that we will take to realise the aims of our strategy. Some of these actions are designed to work on the demand sides of the learning and labour markets and others on the supply sides. The corresponding icons next to each action indicate these.
Key
| Stimulating supply of learning to individuals |
| Stimulating supply of learning to employers |
| Stimulating demand for learning from employers |
| Stimulating demand for learning from individuals |
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