Informed Scotland April 2016 – Common threads & unashamed name dropping!

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With political lockdown in place for the Scottish Parliament elections, April was the quietest month for a while. That said, there was no shortage of interesting developments.

Reports worth highlighting include the UK Commission for Employment & Skills’ Working Futures on labour market projections; the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Big Ideas on the future of engineering in schools; the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers’ progress report on its review of supply teachers; and Carnegie UK’s InterAction, encouraging more and better collaboration between universities and third sector organisations.

Once again Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) was a ‘hot topic’. It was therefore interesting to discover, through conversation with a subscriber from business, that not everyone associates DYW with delivering the Wood Commission recommendations. It’s a useful reminder of the impact of names and brands on communicating messages, and of the need to take people with you when changes are made. We make no apologies therefore for a bit more name dropping from time to time!

Our subscribers are always encouraged to look beyond their natural ‘go to’ places for items – it’s not always obvious under which heading some articles should appear, especially as collaboration between sectors continues to grow. And some threads, such as digital skills, weave their way throughout the learning & skills landscape.

We also look ahead to a learning-packed week with National Digital Learning Week, Learning at Work Week and Learning Disability Week all taking place from 16th May.

Finally, congratulations to the Scottish College for Educational Leadership for selling out their inaugural conference taking place this week! Find out more about their work via the latest Informed Scotland guest blog Developing teacher leadership with SCEL – co-creating the future. All past blogs can be found here.

Want to keep on top of all the developments? Become an Informed Scotland subscriber. Email [email protected] to request a sample copy.