With Scottish Apprenticeship Week taking place during May it isn’t surprising that one of the hot topics last month was apprenticeships. The particularly high level of activity in construction was more unusual, however it highlights some examples of how a sector can act to tackle its skills shortages. Look out for an interesting report from […]
We’re excited to publish an Informed Scotland Innovation Special. It was commissioned by College Development Network to support their Emporium of Dangerous Ideas 2015. The Emporium is ‘a future-orientated education festival that aims to re-establish the importance of dangerous ideas as agents of change in education – to shift the axis of what is possible!’ […]
We’re delighted to publish an Informed Scotland Technologies at Work Special. It was commissioned by Education Scotland to support the publication of their report, Building Society: Young people’s experiences and outcomes in the technologies, launched on 9 March 2015. At the launch in March, Bill Maxwell, Chief Executive of Education Scotland said, ‘We want our […]
Deciding where to place items in each monthly issue is always a challenge. But that’s what Informed Scotland is all about – encouraging people to take off their blinkers and look beyond the obvious places. See how another education or business sector is tackling similar or related problems. Discover how others have successfully piloted an initiative that would […]
Have you checked the Learning & Skills Events Calendar lately? Almost every day we add new events – conferences, seminars, workshops, exhibitions, awards ceremonies, lectures… Most are targeted at specific sectors and professions, but many are open to broader groups and some to the wider public – and many are free to attend. At the time of writing, […]
A few ‘big’ items made the headlines last month, with The Education (Scotland) Bill 2015 leading the way. Two Skills Investment Plans were published by SDS, on the construction and energy sectors. And Education Scotland launched a significant report on the technologies curriculum in schools. We’ve been commissioned to produce an Informed Scotland Technologies Special […]
The word of the month was ‘challenge’. The Scottish Government’s new Scottish Attainment Challenge, based on the successful London Challenge, and the UKCES report Catch 16–24: Youth Employment Challenge, setting out how many employers value work experience but most don’t offer it. Some significant developments to look out for this month include the new master’s […]
by Aileen Ponton, Chief Executive Officer, Scottish Credit & Qualifications Framework Partnership. Continuing our guest blog series featuring Informed Scotland subscribers writing on the theme Making connections across the learning & skills landscape. As some of you may know, we at the SCQF Partnership are now heaving a collective sigh of relief after a very […]
There was no real lull in activity over the festive period, with major announcements and reports being published throughout the last two months. It’s been quite a task to make sure all of the items were squeezed in to our bumper double issue. The annual round of statistics was released, including Summary Statistics for Schools […]
Here’s our annual list of Learning & Skills ‘Hot Topics’ that made it onto the cover of Informed Scotland over the past year: Apprenticeships (9 in 2013) Partnerships & collaboration (3) Digital literacy, inclusion & skills (1) Skills gaps & shortages (6) Work experience, internships & work-related learning (-) Raising attainment & widening access (10) […]