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Strengthening education and skills
The Government Economic Strategy and Skills for Scotland: A Lifelong Skills Strategy5 make clear the vital contribution that education and skills make towards driving economic growth. The Scottish Government is committed to investing to mitigate the effects of the recession, ensuring that individuals can re-enter the workplace as quickly as possible and businesses have the skills needed to grow.
Skills for Scotland sets out a vision for a Scotland where all our young people are successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens. It aims for a Scotland where all people can make their full contribution to economic growth as well as building a fairer, more equitable Scotland. Skills for Scotland is guided by the three principles of: creating a cohesive system; providing education and training that treats people as individuals; and stimulating and meeting real demand from employers. We are working closely with key partners such as Skills Development Scotland, the Scottish Funding Council and others to realise this vision.
Our commitment to this vision is reflected in: Curriculum for Excellence6 - the most radical education reform in Scotland for a generation; the Early Years Framework, 7 our joint approach with COSLA to give our children the best start in life; and our continuing work with Further and Higher Education to make sure that the supply of education and skills is responsive to demand. Scotland's ability to take full advantage of economic recovery will depend on the investments we make now to support our children, young people and their families.
To achieve this, we have introduced a wide range of measures to increase access to education and training, bolster the capacity of our key institutions to provide the right educational and training support, and improve the value of training in the economy.
- We are assisting children in education and their families. For example, we are extending entitlement to free school meals from August 2009 to benefit around 44,000 pupils.
- We are working with businesses to maximise the use of skills. In September 2008, we established the Skills Utilisation Leadership Group to champion the best use of skills in the workplace, vital for businesses positioning themselves for recovery. Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Skills Development Scotland will embed support for skills utilisation across their services. The Scottish Funding Council is providing £1.8 million over two years for a programme of 12 projects led by colleges and universities to pilot new approaches that support the effective use of skills in the workplace.
- We are providing access for more people to the right learning and skills training. We will open up access to Individual Learning Accounts to an extra 250,000 people on low incomes by increasing the income assessment threshold from summer 2009. We are extending fee support for taught post-graduate students to part-time students in 2009-10 and have increased the funding available through Career Development Loans. In addition, we are guaranteeing education opportunities for all young people through 16+ Learning Choices.
Strengthening education through 16+ Learning Choices In our Curriculum for Excellence, Building the Curriculum 3 makes it clear that every young person is entitled to a senior phase of learning and we have recently launched 16+ Learning Choices to support this. 16+ Learning Choices will offer a place in learning to all young people in Scotland who want it by December 2010, and will support every young person as they reach their compulsory school-leaving age - 60,000 individuals each year. This will help us to avoid a lost generation by offering all young people the opportunities and support they need. In support of this, we recently announced that we will be investing £16 million over the next two years to develop pilots of Activity Agreements - an improved way of recognising and supporting our most vulnerable young people's learning in a community or third sector setting. The pilots will be targeted at those young people who leave school and go into a negative destination - there were 7,000 such young people in 2007-08. To create thousands of additional college places to meet the rising demand caused by the economic downturn, in particular from school-leavers, we are increasing the capacity of our colleges by providing an additional £16.1 million over the next two years from the 2009 UK Budget consequentials. |
The Scottish Government has also responded rapidly to the economic downturn to ensure that businesses and individuals have access to the necessary advice, support and training to weather the recession. ScotAction, launched on 10 June, is the Scottish Government's skills support package for helping Scotland out of recession and into longer-term economic growth. ScotAction is an integrated package combining new and improved measures to help individuals and businesses through the recession and provides skills assistance - including wage subsidies in some circumstances - for training for work, training in work and training from work to work. This includes extensive activity in support of apprenticeships.
Strengthening skills through supporting apprenticeships Skills Development Scotland has responded to employers to ensure that Modern Apprenticeships ( MAs) and other skills interventions meet both the current and future needs of businesses. As a result of this collaboration a number of changes have been made: - funding for adult MAs being re-introduced in areas where employers have demonstrated evidence of demand, such as Meat Processing, Bakery and Printing;
- Level 2 MA Frameworks being approved in sectors such as Construction and Food and Drink; and
- a new Life Sciences MA Framework.
In February, the Scottish Government announced £16 million in funding to support an additional 7,800 new apprenticeships this year, including: - 1,000 apprenticeships for young people in Glasgow to support the Commonwealth Games Legacy proposal;
- 50 all-age apprenticeships for the Creative industries; and
- 100 all-age Home Energy and Efficiency Apprenticeships.
Over 150 employers and key partners attended our first ever Apprenticeships Summit in April to determine how to stimulate apprentice recruitment and ensure that our apprenticeship programme adapted to the challenges of the recession. As a direct result, we are introducing through ScotAction: - adult apprenticeships in sectors with clear employer demand starting with 500 in Hospitality and Tourism; and
- a wage subsidy of up to £2,000 for employers who take on a redundant apprentice.
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We have also acted to strengthen the services available to those who face redundancy or unemployment.
- We have increased the support for people facing redundancy. Our service for tackling actual and threatened redundancies across the country - the Partnership Action for Continuing Employment ( PACE) initiative - has been further strengthened with the launch of a national helpline. Skills Development Scotland co-ordinates PACE at a national level and has secured £1.4 million of European Social Fund support to help an additional 4,600 individuals. Following the PACE Summit in February we are establishing a national PACE Partnership to further improve the service's responsiveness.
- We have improved the training available to the unemployed. For example, we have changed the eligibility rules for the vocational training available through Training for Work so that those who become unemployed can get access to it more quickly.
- We are making the public sector's approach to employment and skills more joined up and effective. Pilots have been launched in 25 sites to better integrate employment and skills services with Jobcentre Plus and Skills Development Scotland. These sites bring together career and employment advice with support for skills training more effectively and have already helped over 1,000 people.
An important element of all our activity has been making the best use of the funding available through the European Social Fund to support individuals entering or remaining in work. In March this year, we announced £5.6 million to fund 33 projects, supporting 7,000 people in the Highlands and Islands, and in April, £24.1 million to fund 79 projects, supporting 75,000 people in the rest of Scotland. Examples of these projects include:
- Right Track Scotland, which was awarded £108,183 to support 100 young people outside of mainstream education with training in personal development, action planning, core skills, preparation for employment and work experience; and
- the Prince's Trust, which was awarded £566,711 to support 744 young people in need of better oportunities and provide a 6-8 week career taster, skills training, a guaranteed job placement and interview on completion.
We also recognise the need to address the particular difficulties faced by our most vulnerable citizens, particularly those with lower skills levels. For this group, short spells of unemployment can cause greater long-term social damage, leading to a deterioration of skills and knowledge that has long-term implications for economic recovery. Our support to those most vulnerable to the effects of the downturn includes the following actions.
- We are investing directly in the capacity and capability of the Third Sector to deliver effective services to vulnerable individuals. This includes the establishment of the Scottish Investment Fund, Third Sector Enterprise Fund and Social Entrepreneurs Fund and the provision of £93 million in funding over the next three years to help the sector. In June, we set out an Enterprising Third Sector Action Plan to create the right conditions to support a thriving third sector and are monitoring the impact of the recession and long-term resilience. In partnership with the sector, we are also developing proposals to provide practical assistance to mitigate the impacts of increased demand for services and cash-flow difficulties caused by the recession, including the design of a Resilience Fund.
- We have developed a comprehensive set of actions to support the poorest households in our joint anti-poverty framework with COSLA, Achieving Our Potential.8 For Scotland to benefit fully from the recovery, it is critical that we enable all people to make their full contribution to growth and enjoy the benefits of that growth. Working with public, third and private sector partners through Achieving Our Potential, we will maintain our clear focus on tackling income inequality.
The measures we have introduced since the economic downturn are starting to bring real benefits across the country, as the following example of how colleges are supporting the PACE initiative shows.
Making a difference with PACE The Scottish Funding Council provided an additional £7 million for 18 months from January 2009 to Scotland's 43 publicly-funded colleges to allow them to respond quickly and flexibly to local redundancies and provide support to PACE. Already colleges have used the funding to provide support in local areas. Angus College has established a 'Rapid Response Team' to assist local companies and individuals affected by redundancy. The dedicated team is proactively contacting local businesses to establish whether there is any scope to up-skill, retrain or diversify into other areas and ensure they remain competitive. The team is also advising and assisting individuals to identify employment opportunities, either through refining current skills or complete retraining. Aberdeen College is heavily involved with PACE partners to assist those made redundant by the Inverurie Papermill. The college has created two new courses aimed at developing the employment skills of those who have lost their jobs or who may be facing uncertainty in relation to future employment. The 10-week courses both begin in June and will be delivered at Inverurie Fire Station by Aberdeen College lecturing staff. |
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