Informed Scotland October 2019 – Equity, diversity & pause for thought
It’s extremely rare, but last month was a quiet one for learning & skills in Scotland. With mid-term holidays and the nation’s attention focused on… let’s just call them ‘other matters’, it wasn’t too surprising. Or perhaps the relentless pace of change and intensity of activity across the learning & skills landscape finally caught up with everyone, and this was the breather we all needed.
Although there were no major announcements, a number of items are well worth highlighting:
- The first Sectoral Skills Assessments were published by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) complementing their annual Regional Skills Assessments
- New guidelines for teacher Professional Review & Development were published by the General Teaching Council for Scotland
- There were Scottish Funding Council statistics on college leaver destinations and a regional edition of AGCAS/Prospects’ What do graduates do? report with details for Scotland
- A number of items focused on tackling poverty, prejudice and harassment, including reports by Universities Scotland on gender-based, and the Equality & Human Rights Commission on race-based, harassment in higher education
- Numerous developments aimed to challenge gender imbalance, including a new Gender Commission focused on apprenticeships set up by SDS, the launch of Talent4Point0 to support the data and tech sector, and Equate Scotland’s Inclusive Value tool for the construction industry
- And a chunk of the actions in the new Scottish Government/COSLA plan for Improving the lives of Gypsy/Travellers are about learning, training and skills.
Once again, numerous consultations and surveys are seeking your input. There’s a Scottish Government adult learning survey, Education Scotland’s annual STEM professional learning survey, plus QAA’s consultation on transnational education and the Scottish Parliament’s consultation on a proposed Disabled Children & Young People (Transitions) (Scotland) Bill.
This is the tip of the information iceberg: become an Informed Scotland subscriber so you can keep on top of all the developments. Email [email protected] to request a sample copy.
You can also keep up to date via Twitter @InformedScot where we’ve just hit 4,000 followers!