Informed Scotland May 2024 – Helping you make sense of learning & skills since 2012
May was a much busier month for learning & skills in Scotland. The latest digest is packed with reports, announcements and guidance of interest across the landscape, including:
- An ‘energy skills passport’ to be trialled by RenewableUK and Offshore Energies UK
- UK and devolved governments’ response to the UK shipbuilding skills taskforce report, including a new Shipbuilding Skills Delivery Group, chaired by Scottish Engineering’s Chief Executive
- SQA’s plans to give students access to some of their marked exam papers in August
- Scottish Government commissioned analysis of teacher resourcing needs for the coming decade
- Reform Scotland’s report on the ‘dramatic decline’ in computing science in schools
- The final report of the Scottish Parliament’s Additional Support for Learning Inquiry
- HM Inspectorate of Education’s Evaluation of curriculum design in Scotland
- The withdrawal of government funding for the National Parent Forum of Scotland, reported by Tes Scotland
- UCAS’s consultation on allocating Tarriff points to apprenticeships
- UK Government’s decision to retain the Graduate route visa for international students
- Another batch of Jisc reports on generative AI and extended reality in tertiary education
- Preliminary findings of research into The value and impact of Scotland’s libraries.
This edition marks Informed Scotland’s 12th anniversary
It’s always revealing to recall what was shaping the learning & skills landscape in May 2012, with an eye to what’s changed – or not. Youth unemployment was a shocking 23.1%. Education Scotland had just audited secondary school preparations for implementing Curriculum for Excellence. The regionalisation of Scotland’s 41 colleges was underway. The Scottish Parliament was set to increase free early learning & childcare from 475 to 600 hours per year. A Parliament Committee concluded that the attainment gap for looked after children was ‘unacceptably wide’. But there was no mention of green skills or energy transition in a press release for Scottish Enterprise’s new Oil & Gas Strategy 2012 2020: Maximising our Future.
Particular thanks to those of you who’ve been subscribing since the start – who’d have thought it would still be going, 121 issues later!
Informed Scotland Extra – General Election 2024
As usual ahead of a major election, an ‘Election Extra’ is in the pipeline, containing links to manifestos and resources that focus on or highlight learning and skills issues. It’ll be sent to subscribers and available here for anyone to download free of charge later this month. Send your email address to [email protected] if you’d prefer to receive it direct.
Don’t miss out! Become an Informed Scotland subscriber so you too can keep on top of all the developments. Email [email protected] to request a copy of the latest issue.