Informed Scotland October 2017 – Plans, aims, gains & change
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October is usually a little less hectic for Scottish learning & skills – but not this year…
The main items this month were the Scottish Government’s Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths [STEM] – Education & Training Strategy, accompanied by an announcement for £20k STEM teacher bursaries; and publication of their Expansion of Early Learning & Childcare: Quality Action Plan.
The latter should be read alongside NHS Health Scotland’s review of the benefits to children of attending high quality early learning & childcare, also published in October.
A number of consultations were announced, including those on measuring the poverty-related attainment gap and on revising the professional standards for college lecturers. A major consultation on the new Education (Scotland) Bill was just published at the start of November – but more on that next month!
Other interesting items to look out for include:
- two reports on the use of contextual information in university admissions from the Scottish Funding Council and Sutton Trust
- Education Scotland’s changes to school inspections
- Carnegie UK Trust’s report making recommendations on digital inclusion for vulnerable young people – and demonstrating that it’s wrong to assume all young people are ‘digital natives’.
It’s also worth highlighting that the target set for the Developing the Young Workforce agenda – to reduce youth unemployment by 40% by 2021 – has been met four years ahead of schedule. If only anyone had the time to celebrate…
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