Informed Scotland March 2024 – Is no news good news?
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 surveys worth delving into:
- QAA’s report on Degree Apprenticeships
- City & Guilds’ report on neurodiversity in the workplace
- ScotlandIS’s Scottish Technology Industry Survey
- SQA’s evaluation of the 2023 approach to National Qualifications assessment
- OECD’s report on Enhancing Scotland’s multi-level school improvement support system
- Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association’s survey on mobile phone use in classrooms
- HM Inspectors of Education’s College sector overview report
- QAA’s report on Higher education funding and quality amid growing concerns
- British Council’s Outlook for international student mobility
- and High Fliers’ Graduate Market in 2024, recording an unexpected drop in recruitment.
Two interesting new projects are also worth highlighting:
- The Manufacturing Skills Academy and SDS’s trial of a Pre-Approved Talent scheme, similar to the university clearing system
- Tay Cities Region Deal funding for a major partnership project to grow skills in medtech, biotech and agritech sectors, involving three colleges.
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