Scotland has a relatively good record on skills qualifications. However, that has not translated as well as it could in to enhanced economic performance. This is a key message articulated in the Government Economic Strategy and Skills for Scotland, the lifelong skills strategy.
Our nation has the potential to do much more with the skills available to us. If Scotland is to become a more successful country with opportunities for all to flourish through increasing sustainable economic growth, we collectively need to make better use of skills.
Recognising the value of skills to performance, productivity and economic growth through funding and supporting learning is vitally important. However, it is not enough simply to invest in training. Organisations and individuals will only reap the full benefits of skills investment when workplaces fully enable staff to also use their skills effectively. Not realising these benefits is something organisations can ill-afford at the best of times; it is something they especially cannot ignore in current economic circumstances.
Making better use of skills is about:
- confident, motivated and relevantly skilled individuals who are aware of the skills they possess and know how to best use them in the workplace
working in
- workplaces that provide meaningful and appropriate encouragement, opportunity and support for employees to use their skills effectively
in order to
- increase performance and productivity, improve job satisfaction and employee well-being, and stimulate investment, enterprise and innovation.
Actions to Make Better Use of Skills in the Workplace
Making better use of skills in the workplace is about working smarter in ways that increase productivity, enrich jobs and improve job satisfaction. It can be done by pursuing actions that facilitate more effective use and by overcoming barriers that hinder full and creative use. It is an issue that encompasses many elements, including, among other things, how well learning is transferred to the workplace setting, the quality of leadership and management, human resource practices, job design, organisational ambitions and workplace organisation.
Advice on Making Better Use of Skills
Social Partnership
The challenge of making the better use of skills has given the Scottish Government an opportunity to develop a distinctively Scottish approach to social partnership, working together with employers and trades unions.
In January 2008, the Scottish Government and the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) signed a Joint Communiqué on Skills Utilisation, which among other things, commits to working together to undertake policy development and research into skills utilisation in the workplace that will examine existing good practice in the UK and beyond.
Leadership Group
In September 2008, Fiona Hyslop, the Education and Lifelong Learning Secretary, established the Skills Utilisation Leadership Group. The Group brings together business and trade union leaders with the Government, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Skills Development Scotland, the Scottish Funding Council, Skills Development Scotland and the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations to champion the better use of skills in the workplace.
A progress report was circulated at the National Economic Forum in March 2009.
E-Bulletins
Skills Utilisation E-Bulletins, which outline progress made to improve skills utilisation in Scotland, are regularly issued.
Reaping the Benefits: Encouraging Employer Engagement in Skills Utilisation
The Leadership Group has adopted a strategy to encourage employer engagement in skills utilisation. A News Release announcing the issue of the report Reaping the Benefits was issued on 19 June. The report was prepared by a stakeholder Action Group that examined how to increase the numbers of employers in the private, public and third sectors in Scotland who engage in activities to improve the effective use of skills in the workplace.
The strategy has an accompanying Communications Action Plan.
A Cross-Sectoral Network was established in September 2009 to help implement the strategy and communications action plan.
Research
Best Strategies Project
We know from the Skills Utilisation Literature Review that there is no one-size-fits-all model to improving skills utilisation in the workplace. The Leadership Group has therefore approved the concept of a project to identify which organisational strategies to implement effective skills utilisation best work in particular circumstances.
The project is about what organisations should do to ensure effective skills utilisation in their given circumstances, recognising that while the focus is on the workplace, effective skills utilisation arises from the effective working of a range of partners: the management team, employees, union representatives and business support and learning providers.
The project is being led by Scottish Enterprise and Skills Development Scotland.
Skills Utilisation Projects
As part of the Leadership Group's overall activities, the Scottish Funding Council issued a circular to colleges and universities in October 2008 which called for proposals to enhance their contribution to skills utilisation. The Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland worked together to select the projects.
A News Release outlining details of the twelve successful college/university-led projects was issued on 5 June. The total funding for the suite of projects is £1.8 million over the next two years. The projects will be considered as constituent parts of a research programme rather than as separate initiatives.
Diagrams
A series of skills utlisation diagrams have been developed:
Curriculum for Excellence: An Example of a Policy Encouraging Effective Skills Use in Action
A Curriculum for Excellence is about returning autonomy to teachers, enabling teachers to better use their skills and provides many examples of how the skills of teachers are being better utilised. It recognises that teacher continuous professional development can be less about expensive courses, but more about time and space to reflect on their own practice.
UK Commission on Employment and Skills
The Scottish Government is also working closely with colleagues in the UK Commission for Employment and Skills on skills utilisation.