Despite the run up to the General Election there was still a lot happening in learning & skills in Scotland in June.
There were three legislation announcements – all with consultations over the summer:
The Education (Scotland) Bill, setting out legislation to replace the SQA with Qualifications Scotland and create an HM Chief Inspector of Education role to take on the inspection functions currently within Education Scotland. Two Scottish Parliament committees have called for views – deadline 30 August. Separate to the Bill, Scottish Government also announced a revised remit for Education Scotland.
Scottish Government launched a consultation on legislation for Post-School Education and Skills Reform, proposing changes to the roles of the three funding bodies: the Student Awards Agency Scotland, Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland – deadline 20 September.
A new Schools (Residential Outdoor Education) (Scotland) [Member’s] Bill to ensure that all pupils in state and grant-aided schools will be able to have at least four nights and five days of residential outdoor education during their time at school – deadline for Parliament committee calls for views is 4 September.
Meanwhile, across the learning & skills landscape, AI and generative AI continue to be a major focus for discussion and development, including:
A Hays survey of AI use in recruitment by both job candidates and employers
QAA Scotland’s evaluation of the impact of 20 years of its Enhancement Themes activities.
Want to keep on top of all the developments? Become an Informed Scotland subscriber. Email [email protected] to request a complimentary copy. Subscribe before September and receive the 2024 Organisations & People Special to find out who’s where in Scottish learning & skills.
Ahead of each major election, Informed Scotland subscribers receive a brief scan of manifestos and resources focusing on or highlighting learning and skills issues.
Manifestos, including from Colleges Scotland, the EIS, Universities Scotland, NUS Scotland, Enginuity, Scottish Chambers of Commerce, Prosper, FSB, the Institute of Student Employers and National Centre for Universities & Business
Resources, such as Education Scotland’s guidance for teachers and ‘You decide’ political literacy resource; collections of resources from Democracy Classroom and Twinkl, and the Electoral Commission’s Educator Handbook for teachers of 14–18 year-olds
Campaigns such as Enable Scotland’s Enable the Vote for people with a learning disability and YouthLink Scotland’s support for the Give an X campaign
Projects such as Children in Scotland’s 2023–26 Youth Voice Network for Scotland commissioned by the Electoral Commission
Summaries and analyses of pledges from the main parties published by organisations including the Higher Education Policy Institute, Times Higher Education, Fraser of Allander Institute, London Economics, the BBC and Sky News.
Not a subscriber? Click here to download your free copy!
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:
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.
With political uncertainty across the UK, plus funding challenges and the Easter break, April was the quietest month for a while for learning and skills.
The impact of financial pressures can be seen right across the landscape, most clearly in some of the hard decisions taken recently.
Such as removing the Upskilling Fund for universities, a casualty of the Scottish Funding Council’s ‘difficult choices’ with university funding allocations. Skills Development Scotland’s update that there will be no Individual Training Accounts money available for 2024/25. And the John Muir Trust’s worrying pause in the John Muir Award due to ‘a serious financial deficit’.
It’s not all doom and gloom, however. Interesting and somewhat more upbeat items to look out for include:
Findings from an Open University survey of employers’ views of young people in the workplace
Development of a new Tertiary Quality Enhancement Framework for Scotland by partners including the SFC, QAA Scotland, College Development Network and Education Scotland
Plus Digital Schools Awards Scotland’s new Digital Award for early learning & childcare settings, supported by Education Scotland.
Another month with no major learning & skills announcements.
Normally this would be seen as welcome news by many who value the space to get on with the task at hand. However, the ‘lull’ in decision-making on school education reform in particular is raising tensions and anticipation, and creating new challenges.
As two of education’s wise owls, Prof Chris Chapman and Prof Graham Donaldson of the University of Glasgow write, ‘Financial pressures have become even more apparent, complicating the possibilities of achieving ambitious reform’. Not to mention the ‘series of further developments and reviews’.
Their paper, Leading from the Classroom, hopes to ‘[stimulate] the discussion, thinking and the calculated risk taking required to catalyse the development of a Scottish education system that can lead, rather than respond to, the local and global challenges of the future’.
Watch this space – but perhaps don’t hold your breath.
In the meantime, there’s plenty to keep us occupied, including research reports, annual statistics and surveysworth delving into:
And launch of a consultation on ‘resourcing Scotland’s planning system’ with proposals to address the growing skills shortage in a sector often overlooked.
…as are three interesting reports from three ‘futures’ projects…
The Future of Learning & Teaching ‘state of the nation research’ on delivering digital/blended learning, by the SFC, Education Scotland, QAA Scotland, sparqs and CDN
The latter is one example of items that have already started to appear in anticipation of the General Election that’s yet to be called. Informed Scotland regulars will remember that ahead of each major election I produce an Election Extra with a quick scan of manifestos, briefings and resources relevant to learning and skills. Collation of items has begun. And you won’t have to be a subscriber to get hold of the completed version!
The impact, opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence (AI) in education featured right across the learning & skills landscape. Research, resources and projects that aim to illuminate, alert, reassure, challenge and advise include:
University of Glasgow’s XRed ‘white paper’ summary and detailed report on the benefits and challenges of extended (immersive) reality (XR) for education, part-funded by Meta
Issue 117 also covered the usual raft of annual statistics and surveys, budget and investment announcements, partnership projects, new courses and personnel notices. Also look out for:
Digital skills is back at the top after not making the top three for the first time ever in 2022. It has now held first or joint first place six times and is one of only two topics to have appeared in ten of the 11 annual lists.
Energy transition & green skills was a new entry in 2022, and has jumped from joint third to joint top this year. Its inclusion is no surprise, reflecting the exponentially growing need for skills at all levels and across numerous sectors.
In joint third place are Apprenticeships and Colleges, the latter being the only new entry this year. Apprenticeships has made every annual list except two, with this its third time in the top three, having been top in 2014. However the spotlight shone more brightly than usual on the college sector in 2023. Its contribution to the economy was highlighted, as was the key role of colleges in tackling skills shortages. Meanwhile, risks to the sector’s financial sustainability had increased since 2022, and the cost of living crisis – and Covid-19 – continued to put pressure on institutions, students and staff.
Skills shortages & gaps is the only other topic to appear for the tenth time, having only missed the list in 2019. In 2023 the main shortages and gaps were once again in green skills/skills for energy transition, digital and cybersecurity, engineering and social care, plus people management and skilled trades.
Among the topics that appeared on a cover for the first time was ‘Behaviour & attendance in schools’ – expect to see this on the list for 2024.
The only surprise omission was ‘Recruitment, vacancies & workforce shortages’. Despite sharing top spot last year and being predicted for a return appearance, it didn’t even make one cover.
What other topics are expected to be ‘hot’ this year? ‘Energy transition & green skills & jobs’ is likely to be back. Also expect to see the return of ‘School education reforms’ and ‘Qualifications…’, as consultations and debates continue about the major changes planned. The proposed ‘Centre of Teaching Excellence’ is likely to feature, as is the fallout from the recent PISA results, and plans for ‘Tertiary education’ as a whole, as opposed to further, higher and other aspects of post-school education.
Make it your New Year’s resolution to be better informed about what’s happening across learning & skills in Scottish business, schools, further & higher education, community & adult learning, and government & wider society. Contact [email protected] to receive a recent sample copy and find out how to subscribe here.
The hottest topics, aside from education reform (covered in the October issue), were school pupil behaviour & attendance and green skills, jobs and careers. The latter included:
Finally, the latest OECD PISA results were published this week and will be covered in the next issue. But in November, an Institute for Fiscal Studies report explored the impact of ‘affluence’ on Scottish pupils’ performance in previous PISA tests.
The next issue will be the Dec/Jan edition out in February 2024. However in January look out for the 11th annual stocktake of Learning & Skills ‘Hottest Topics’ from Informed covers in 2023. Wonder how it will compare with the 2022 list?
Rather than make our subscribers wait, several major education and skills reform announcements made on 7 November by the Cabinet Secretary for Education & Skills in a statement to the Scottish Parliament, are included in this month’s issue:
Details about a new Centre of Teaching Excellence which had been announced at the SNP’s annual conference in October; a blog post by Prof Mark Priestley considers some of the pros and cons
A new consultation on the provisions of the Education Bill due to be introduced to Parliament in 2024 – open until 18 December 2023
A ministerial group, chaired by the Cabinet Secretary, to advise on the whole education and skills reform, recognising it as one system
An Education and Skills Reform Chief Executive Forum, for all bodies impacted by reform
Scottish Government is to ‘taper’ funding for Regional Improvement Collaboratives (RICs) for the next academic year, with funding repurposed ‘to better support teachers’
Publication of the third report from the International Council of Education Advisers; interestingly, among their recommendations is a call to clarify the role of RICs and make their funding arrangements ‘promote strategic planning over a three-year [rather than a one-year] period’.
Other items worth highlighting:
A CIPD report on the apprenticeships levy and policy differences across the UK
Want to keep on top of all the developments? Become an Informed Scotland subscriber. Email [email protected] to request a complimentary copy from Angela and discover what you’re missing.
Our monthly intelligence digest of Scottish Learning and Skills
“I find Informed Scotland incredibly useful for keeping up to date about issues. It very much delivers what it sets out to achieve – ensuring people are informed about updates that matter to them in an accessible and concise a way as possible.”
“Informed Scotland has become a well-established element of our monitoring role for education and skills policy across the UK. It is one of the few publications that manages to combine a high quality overview of the education, skills, business and labour market information for a nation. There is an understanding of the relationships between these factors that is rarely recognised or captured in such a succinct way. A vital read for all who operate or who aspire to operate in this sector.”
– Patrick Craven, Director of Quality, Policy & Stakeholder Engagement, City & Guilds
“Excellent publication which enables us to keep well briefed and informed on all important education, business and skills updates! I can’t recommend it enough!”
– Natalie Phillips, Sustainable Communities Development Manager, Clyde Gateway
“Always find something of interest in Informed Scotland – either recent reports or the people moving into new roles.”
