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Chapter Two The Aims, Scope and Targets of Fresh Talent
Introduction
2.1 While the New Scots policy statement lists a series of actions cross-cutting a variety of policy areas, it does not in itself set the scope or targets associated with FT. As the 2005 review by the Europe and External Relations Committee of the Scottish Parliament Europe commented in this respect, "the Executive [needs to] set out clearly the purpose, direction and expectations of the Initiative" as "this will help to ensure a better understanding of how the initiative fits into economic strategy in Scotland" (Scottish Parliament, 2005). The purpose, direction and scope have been clarified as the initiative has developed.
2.2 From its inception, the Initiative has been identified as having 3 primary aims:
- to address the projected falling population and increasing age demographic in Scotland by encouraging and enabling people to relocate to Scotland, allowing ongoing stays by students, and other measures;
- to bolster the dynamism and cosmopolitanism of Scottish life and the economy; and
- to promote Scotland as an ideal place to live, study, work and do business.
2.3 At its heart, action has been targeted towards specific audiences who will: assist meeting these aims; ensure that Scotland attracts and retains "bright, talented, hard working people who can make a positive contribution to the Scottish economy and society"; and support a diverse population base. Five groups have been identified as targets:
- students
- people seeking employment
- entrepreneurs and the self employed looking to start up businesses in Scotland
- Scottish business looking to recruit from overseas
- expatriate Scots looking to return home
2.4 Under FT's remit - the attraction and retention of people from outwith Scotland - activities have been implemented both within Scotland and in association with partners elsewhere in the UK and overseas to encourage and enable migrants to enter Scotland. FT has broadly attempted to influence migration through 5 sets of actions:
a) provide information in countries of origin about opportunities in Scotland and specifically about the support provided to enable talented individuals to come and work in Scotland. This has been both targeted at particular countries (eg postgraduate students in India, Malaysia, Singapore and China, and workers in Poland) and, more generically, through partners such as British Council and Scottish Council for Development and Industry ( SCDI);
b) advice and support to assist applicants to gain entry into Scotland and, through interaction with the Home Office, reduce some of the barriers to entry into Scotland for talented migrants;
c) encouragement to specific groups of international migrants (especially international students) to remain in Scotland and gain access to and experience of the Scottish labour market;
d) encourage employers to engage more with channels of international migration as part of their employment strategy; and
e) enhance the quality of the welcome and information returnees can access on entry into Scotland.
Influencing channels of migration
2.5 International migration between Scotland and the countries of origin can be portrayed as a variety of 'channels' along which people and information flow. Figure 2.1 illustrates how the actions and interventions associated with FT can be located in shaping different aspects of the migration process.
2.6 Existing channels (shown in yellow in Figure 2.1) relevant to Fresh Talent are in place, along which migrants can find "entry pathways" into Scotland. These include:
1. internal labour markets of trans-national corporations who offer employment and relocation opportunities within their own organisations or through related businesses. By their very nature these can be highly restricted and can involve short to long term relocation of talent into Scotland;
2. international recruitment agencies operating to assist employers in identifying potential overseas employees and to provide overseas re-locators with advice, support and services to assist their coming to Scotland. Although relatively limited in comparison to the London and south east of England area, there are a number of agencies in Scotland who perform this task, many of whom are members of the Association of Relocation Agents, the professional body for relocation agents in the UK.
3. Scottish universities and colleges attract approximately 37,700 students from outside of the UK per annum and, in alliance with a host of local agencies overseas, International Offices open up clear channels for talent to enter Scotland.
4. personal and family ties, either through connections with people already resident in Scotland or through connections with members of the Scots diaspora overseas, remain arguably the principal channel by which talent is attracted to Scotland. However, there is little quantifiable evidence for the importance of this route.
2.7 In turn, there are other channels (or networks) along which information flows out of Scotland which can assist in attracting talent. Figure 2.1 illustrates 4 of these which impact on Fresh Talent: the formal networks of Scottish Networks International ( SNI), Global Friends of Scotland ( GfoS) and GlobalScot; and, again importantly, personal family and ties linked to all residents in Scotland.
2.8 Fresh Talent has been active in deepening and widening some of these channels and has also been involved in reducing the barriers - real and imagined - which may inhibit flows of people into Scotland. In so doing, the FT team has worked with partners in the country of origin and taken action in Scotland and the UK to enhance the flows of migrants (eg advice on gaining entry permission and, under FTWiSS , the removal of the need for such permits) and the flows of information (eg enhancing the quality of information on employment, living and studying).
Figure 2.1 Fresh Talent and international migration channels
2.9 All of these actions have the ultimate aim of encouraging more people to relocate into Scotland. However, at this early stage of this long-term initiative, it is unlikely that this aim can be measured directly. Consequently, this research utilises the relationships shown in Figure 2.1 to examine progress made to date under the FT initiative that will encourage greater flows of people and information through these channels.
Defining talent: exploring the terminology
2.10 Which groups of people are being referred to when the notion of talent is invoked? Clearly, there are a number of hierarchical systems through which the skills and competencies of people can be measured. These systems generally pivot around levels of education and educational qualifications, possession of transferable skills, degrees of training and abilities to perform certain kinds of roles in the workplace.
2.11 Whilst hierarchical evaluations tend to imply that talent is an absolute quality which individuals possess, talent might also be thought of as a relative concept. Talent cannot be understood outside of the labour (or other) market it is being defined against. More specifically, talent might be thought of, at least in part, as being a function of the shortages of certain skills, no matter how lowly these skills rank in any given hierarchies. If any economy (or community or society) badly needs bus drivers or bricklayers or cleaners then in a sense these are 'talents' which are at least as essential as those exhibited by doctors, lawyers and accountants.
2.12 The difficulties of identifying talent precisely can be witnessed in recent debates over the importance of the so-called 'creative class'. According to Richard Florida, the creative class represent the most important constituency, within pools of talent more generally, which nations need to attract if they are to be successful in the future. The creative class is comprised of a 'super creative core', which consists of a new class of scientists and engineers, university professors, poets, actors, novelists, entertainers, artists, architects and designers, cultural worthies, think-tank researchers, analysts and opinion formers, 'whose economic function is to create new ideas, new technology, and/or new creative content' (Florida, 2002, 8). Beyond this core group, the creative class also includes a wider circle of talent working in knowledge intensive industries such as high tech sectors, who 'engage in complex problem solving that involves a great deal of independent judgement and requires high levels of education or human capital' (Florida, 2002, 8).
2.13 Whilst recognising that 'there are grey areas and boundary issues', Florida asserts that the notion of the creative class 'has a good deal more precision than existing, more amorphous definitions of knowledge workers, symbolic analysts, or professional and technical workers' (Florida, 2002, 8) and on this basis confidently asserts that around 38 million or 30% of all employed people in the United States belong to this class. But is creativity not a function of every job? Is not talent a more general concept? Are there not more refined stratifications within the creative class that need teased out?
Who is the focus of Fresh Talent?
2.14 The three main aims of the Initiative (see 2.2) are not defined in terms of talent within specific population groups or in specific areas of economic activity. Indeed, it could be argued that the desire under FT to support cosmopolitanism and to address the decline in Scotland's total population points to a wide definition of the talent. The desire to lower the age profile points to a focus on younger age cohorts, specifically students and people of working age.
2.15 In its evidence to the Scottish Parliamentary European and External Relations Committee's inquiry, the Executive indicated a generic approach to attracting bright, talented and hard-working people:
"those people might well be plumbers or brain surgeons; instead of targeting particular skills sectors, the initiative has targeted elements such as numbers, diversity and the entrepreneurship that those people bring" (Scottish Parliament, 2005, para 42).
2.16 In reality, however, FT has defined more selectively the characteristics of its target groups:
1. through the defining of the five target groups (see 2.3);
2. with the primary focus in the early stages of FT being on students, there has been a targeting of those with higher (education) skill levels - generally at Further or Higher Education level.
3. through negotiations with the Home Office over Scotland's position within the new UK points-based system for managing migration, there is a tacit acceptance that, at least in markets from outwith the EU, future emphasis in attracting migrants will focus on specific areas of skill shortages as well as highly educated/skilled students.
2.17 In short, therefore, the targeting of FT action on students, and especially the Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland Scheme, has created the impression that the concept of 'talented, hard working people' is focused on more highly qualified, higher skilled individuals which match up with shortages in the Scottish labour force. This is not to underestimate the work within Eastern Europe to attract lower skilled migrants.
2.18 This focus on those with higher skills resonates with the views of at least some of the partners involved in implementing FT programmes. In the January 2006 progress report on the Scottish International Scholarship Programme ( SISP) for example, the British Council (Scotland) cast FT as "aimed at attracting talented entrepreneurs to Scotland" (British Council, 2006, 1). In the interviews with partners conducted as part of this research, there was a sense too that the focus of FT was specific: for example " FT is all about high skilled workers and the graduate visa extension" (interview comment from Federation of Small Businesses).
2.19 Whether such a population cohort can address all the diverse needs associated with a "growing, dynamic economy", with "enriching our culture", and meet the demographic challenge of population decline is open to debate. Certainly, as analyses of the 2001 Census and from the Home Office indicate, there is little evidence that migrants have higher fertility levels than non-migrants, even if they remain in the UK, and thus are not likely to alter long-term birth rates. And there are questions to be asked about whether higher skilled people are likely to address key skills shortages in the labour market arising from an ageing population. The issue of whether to widen or narrow the focus of FT is considered in Chapter 7.
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