Informed Scotland May 2019 – Making sense of learning & skills since 2012
Seven years ago we published the first edition of Informed Scotland.
Remember 2012, when the talk was of Scotland’s 23.1% youth unemployment, the merger of 37 further education colleges, and Curriculum for Excellence and the move from Standard Grades to new Nationals? Now youth unemployment is down to 6.6%, there are 26 colleges… and, okay, we’re still talking about Curriculum for Excellence and qualifications!
Today’s hot topics include challenging issues not regularly discussed back then, like mental health & wellbeing, or non-existent, like Brexit.
On mental health there were signs of things to come, with Education Scotland’s Communities Team publishing Learning is good for your health in May 2012, and a new national strategy for health & wellbeing in schools under development.
There was no hint of Brexit in issue 1 however. The main item on the EU was a Scottish Government announcement of £25m of European Structural Funding for projects to support getting young people into work. Perhaps had we lauded, rather than taken for granted, this type of regular, significant intervention, we would have avoided the major challenges created by Brexit today.
Back to the present, and May 2019 was the month for a plethora of must-read reports, including:
- recommendations of the Independent panel on career pathways for teachers
- a survey of headteachers on the use and impact of the Attainment Scotland Fund
- a Growing Up in Scotland report on changes in language ability during primary school years
- major reports on recruitment issues and skills shortages: for oil & gas by OPITO, for housing & construction by Scottish Government and for veterinary medicine by SPICe
- a report by LKMco highlighting issues affecting equal access to quality work experience for pupils
- an Open University report on Breaking Barriers to Nursing
- the third annual Report on Widening Access by the Scottish Funding Council – plus a new Framework for Fair Access in higher education
- and the annual Tech Nation and UK Consumer Digital Index reviews.
There are new funds from Education Scotland for creative curriculum design in schools and for STEM leadership and professional learning for teachers, from Skills Development Scotland for digital skills training, and from Scottish Enterprise to provide manufacturing training support for SMEs.
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.
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