Informed Scotland September 2024: Qualifications review, green skills & GenAI
Aside from the Scottish Government’s new programme for the year, there were three particularly hot topics last month:
The Scottish Government’s long awaited and ‘pragmatic’ response to the Independent Review of Qualifications & Assessment, detailing the changes it has accepted – and those it’s rejected, with reactions ranging from a ‘cautious welcome’ to ‘disappointment’.
Green skills & jobs – led by publication of Scotland’s new Green Industrial Strategy, plus a report by Get Zero and the 5% Club on the Transition to green skills & jobs, and the final report of the Scottish Taskforce on Green & Sustainable Financial Services.
AI, GenAI & ethical literacy – a fascinating study from The Open University on the impact of GenAI on assessment and two new AI Competency Frameworks from UNESCO for students and for teachers. And on a separate but related theme, a Learned Societies’ Group report on whether ethical literacy should be a higher priority for the Scottish school curriculum.
So many other items are worth highlighting – here’s just a few:
- Checkatrade & Capital Economics’ UK Trade Skills Index Report on the growing shortages of skilled tradespeople
- National Centre for Universities & Business’s report on the barriers to university–business collaboration on skills
- A self-evaluation framework for education authorities from ADES
- Audit Scotland’s annual review of Scotland’s Colleges, highlighting increasing financial challenges
- London Economics’ report for Universities UK on the economic impact of higher education
- QAA’s interesting analysis of university policies for credit transfer (and check out SCQF Partnership’s Recognition of Prior Learning Hub for a useful source of information and guidance)
- YouthLink Scotland’s set of resources on youth work’s role in improving school attendance and engagement.
Following last month’s observation that some organisations are no longer posting on X (formerly Twitter), others were spotted joining the trend. Including the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Research in Digital Education, CILIPS (Scotland’s library professionals) and Glasgow School of Art. @InformedScot is still active on X, but I’m now also posting on Bluesky – hope to see more of you on there!
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