The Scottish Government

FRESH TALENT: WORKING IN SCOTLAND SCHEME

SIX MONTHLY REPORT OF PARTICIPANTS

SECOND REPORT: JUNE 2005 TO JUNE 2006

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Read the first report June 2005 to December 2005

Introduction

The First Minister of Scotland has set a challenge to attract Fresh Talent to Scotland. The Fresh Talent initiative is driven by the demographic projections for Scotland (the only country within the UK whose population is projected to decline and age) and concern that an ageing population may affect the economic future of Scotland, together with a recognition of the benefits of a more skilled and diverse workforce.

The aims of Fresh Talent are:

• 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 international students, and other measures aimed at workers and the Scottish Diaspora;
• To bolster the dynamism and cosmopolitanism of Scottish life and Scotland's economy
• To promote Scotland as a good place to visit, study, live, work, do business and invest

We need bright talented hard working people who can make a positive contribution to the Scottish economy. We also want to benefit from diversity - new ideas, new blood, new ways of thinking. Our target groups are:

· students

· those looking for employment

· entrepreneurs intending to start up businesses in Scotland

· businesses seeking to recruit migrants and

· Scots looking to return to Scotland to live and work

Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland scheme

The Scottish Executive and Home Office agreed a new scheme called the Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland Scheme (FT:WiSS). The Scheme was launched on 22 June 2005, and enables international graduates from a Scottish Higher or Further Education Institution to stay and work in Scotland for two years after the end of their course without the need for a work permit.

From the launch of the scheme, until January 2007, over 4,000 people from over 150 countries had successfully applied to live and work in Scotland.

Those eligible to apply for permission to stay are non-EEA students who have graduated with a Higher National Diploma from a Scottish Further Education College or an undergraduate degree, Masters degree or PhD from a Scottish Higher Education Institution.

Applicants must intend to work in Scotland during the time they are allowed to stay, and either leave the country at the end of the two year period or switch to one of the UK wide managed migration schemes. If they wish to transfer into work permit employment, then their work permit must be for employment in Scotland.

Applications are administered by the Home Office (for in-country applications) and by UK Visas (for overseas applications). The Home Office passes onto the Scottish Executive's Relocation Advisory Service (RAS) the contact details of everyone who is awarded leave to remain under the scheme. The information for each applicant received from the Home Office is:

Ø Name

Ø Postal address

Ø Nationality

RAS contacts these individuals to monitor what they are doing during the 2 years and whether they stay in Scotland beyond that period. Questionnaires are issued to all successful applicants at the start of their two year period on the scheme, with follow up questionnaires issued every six months. It is not compulsory that applicants reply to the questionnaires or answer all the questions. This report is a snapshot of the responses received during the first 12 months, we are continuing to issue questionnaires as people are accepted onto the scheme and will publish further information as it is received.

Purpose of this Report

This report covers questionnaire responses received during the first year of the scheme (June 2005 to June 2006).

This report has been prepared to present the data on a cumulative basis, and thus includes data from questionnaires returned in the first six months, and included in the first six monthly report. During the second six months (January to June 2006), 1654 questionnaires were sent out to individuals. A total of 587 were returned, giving a response rate of 35.49%. This means that, in total, this report is based on information received from 705 questionnaire returns.

The information can be divided into 4 themes: Individual Information, Education, Employment and Perceptions of Scotland. While the broad findings are summarised below, it must be borne in mind that these are from a relatively small number of respondents and therefore cannot be said to be representative of all FT:WiSS participants. Nevertheless, we have provided figures to show each result as proportion of the overall numbers answering each question. The full responses are detailed in Annex A. Please note, to preserve anonymity, and in line with Data Protection requirements, numbers less than 5 have not been detailed (these are marked *).

Summary of Responses

Individual details

As Table 1 shows, the majority of the 705 respondents are male (429, 60.9per cent of respondents). Three-quarters of the respondents are under the age of 30 (527), with over a third under 25 (246) (Table 2).

In terms of nationality (Table 4), almost two-thirds of respondents come from China, India and Nigeria. This is consistent with the numbers which are accepted onto the scheme.

The majority of respondents currently live in the 4 main Scottish cities, Aberdeen (23.8 per cent), Glasgow (22.1 per cent), Edinburgh (22 per cent) and Dundee (9.6 per cent) (Table 5 refers). However, there was also a wide geographical spread throughout Scotland, albeit in smaller numbers.

Education

In terms of level of qualifications (Table 9), over three-quarters of respondents (79.4 per cent) graduated with a postgraduate degree, 16.3 per cent with an undergraduate degree, and 3.5 per cent with an HND. Respondents had graduated from a wide range of Universities and Colleges in a variety of subjects, with Business studies the most popular course (28.1%), followed by Engineering and Technology (20.7 per cent) (see Table 11).

Employment

Please note that, in this section, some respondents were inconsistent in their responses (e.g. declaring themselves unemployed in one question, but then providing details of employment). Consequently, the data in this section needs to be treated with caution.

As Table 13 shows, the majority of respondents (512) were in work, either as employees (69.8 per cent) or self-employed (2.8 per cent). Over half of those in work (313) were in permanent work, and 397 were in full-time employment (Tables 17 and 18). The majority of those who answered these questions said that their current job was linked to their career choice (276, or 50.2 per cent), although 51.4 per cent reported that their level of job was no appropriate to their level of educational qualification (Tables 21 and 23).

Perceptions of Scotland

Over 90 per cent of respondents said that they considered Scotland to be a very or fairly attractive place to live (92.9 per cent), and study (94.7 per cent). Three quarters of respondents said that Scotland was a very or fairly attractive place to work.

Annex A

Individual Information

Table 1 Gender of respondents

Table 2 Age of respondents

Table 3 Ethnic group of respondents

Table 4 Nationality of respondents

Table 5 place of residence

Table 6 Children and/or partner in Scotland

Table 7 Other family in Scotland

Table 8 Expected length of stay in Scotland

Education

Table 9 Level of highest educational qualification

Table 10 Institution studied at

Table 11 main subject area of study

Table 12 Work experience by the end of studies

Employment

Table 13 Current employment status

Table 14 Place of employment

Table 15 Employment sector

Table 16 Type of main job

Table 17 Permanent/temporary work

Table 18 Full-time/Part-time work

Table 19 Number of employees of employer

Table 20 More than one job

Table 21 Current job linked to career choice

Table 22 If job not linked to career choice, what would help obtain a job that was?

Table 23 Current job appropriate to level of educational qualification

Table 24 Work in sector that qualifications prepared for

Perceptions of Scotland

Table 25 Perceptions of Scotland as a place to live

Table 26 Perceptions of Scotland as a place to study

Table 27 Perceptions of Scotland as a place to work