Posted by admin on February 10, 2017 ·
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Once again there was no lull over the festive season with 2017 continuing at pace, ready to throw everything at the learning & skills landscape. Words of the year are already emerging: ‘equity’, ‘learner journey’, ‘streamlining’, ‘quality’ – and ‘challenging’!
You could be forgiven for having a sense of déjà vu, with the National Improvement Framework for schools back on the cover, just as it was a year ago, though this time it’s the final version. A new Pupil Equity Fund was also launched to help schools close the gap between the most and least deprived young people.
There was the annual glut of statistical releases, with a few notable additions – the first Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels from Scottish Government and the first college Student Satisfaction and Engagement Survey from Scottish Funding Council. Missing was the school leaver destinations report, with Skills Development Scotland instead planning to concentrate on the new Participation Measure of all 16–19 year-olds in learning, training or work each August.
The Scottish Government published its response to the Apprenticeships Levy, as new work-based Graduate Level Apprenticeships were announced by a number of universities. There was an updated Food & Drink Skills Investment Plan from SDS, the well-covered OECD PISA survey, IPPR Scotland’s paper on challenges for the skills system, and the annual High Fliers Research Graduate Market report.
While elsewhere the talk is of walls and borders… we can’t help but comment on the numerous examples of international collaboration in this edition, including the upbeat Scotland’s Universities Welcome the World campaign.
The fourth annual Informed Scotland Learning & Skills Hottest Topics list, plus a round-up of last year’s activity, is in an Annex. You can also listen to an interview on Radio EDUtalk, when Angela and David Noble explored the stories behind the list, and looked at what’s on the horizon for 2017. And look out for mention of a Leadership Special we’ve been commissioned to produce for Scottish College for Educational Leadership to support their conference in Perth on 3 May.
Become an Informed Scotland subscriber so you can keep on top of all the developments. Email [email protected] to request a sample copy.
Posted by admin on January 25, 2017 ·
In an interview for Radio EDUtalk, Angela took David Noble’s listeners on a whistle-stop tour of some of the items that will be shaping Scotland’s learning & skills landscape this year.
You can listen to a podcast of the show, which also reviewed the hottest topics in 2016. Below are links to some of the programmes, projects and events mentioned for 2017:
Government programmes, reviews, strategies & funding
Current open consultations
Resources, opportunities & courses
Themed weeks & major conferences: full list on the Events Calendar
Keep yourself or your organisation better informed about what’s happening in learning & skills in Scotland. Find out how to subscribe here or contact [email protected] to receive a recent copy of the digest.
Posted by admin on January 9, 2017 ·
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Here’s our fourth annual list of Learning & Skills ‘Hot Topics’ that made it onto the cover of Informed Scotland over the past year:
1. Digital & tech sector skills (=2 in 2015)
2. Science, technology, engineering & maths (STEM) (=4)
=3. Apprenticeships (=9)
=3. Enterprise (=2)
=3. Gender balance & gaps (=9)
=3. Teacher education, development, shortages & recruitment (-)
=3. Qualifications (-, although National Qualifications was =9)
=3. Widening access (8)
=9. Assessment (-)
=9. Financial education, capability & skills (-)
=9. Skills gaps & shortages (=4)
Although the list is produced by fairly unscientific methodology, each year it captures most of the hottest issues. Unsurprisingly, ‘Digital skills’ was back in the number one spot, having never been out of the top three since the list was first compiled in 2013.
‘STEM’ has also appeared in every list, however this year’s 2nd place is its highest position by far.
‘Apprenticeships’, ‘Widening access’, and ‘Skills gaps & shortages’ are the only other topics that have made every annual list – and they’re likely to remain hot issues in 2017.
All new entries appear for the first time, although National Qualifications was equal ninth in 2015.
It’s particularly surprising that there have been no previous listings of anything related to teacher education, development or employment. However with plenty happening, including Edinburgh hosting the International Summit on the Teaching Profession in March, we’ve a feeling it’ll be back on the list next year.
The biggest faller was ‘Developing the Young Workforce (DYW)’, missing from the list after topping the table in 2015. Although every digest has included numerous DYW items, it only made it onto two covers.
Despite 2016 being the Scottish Government’s Year of Innovation, Architecture & Design, ‘Innovation’ only made it onto one cover, with no showings of architecture or design. We’re therefore reluctant to predict an entry related to the 2017 Year of History, Heritage & Archaeology…
Angela will be reviewing the stories behind the list and looking at what’s in store for 2017 in an interview for Radio EDUtalk on 24 January. What were your 2016 highlights? What are your predictions for 2017? Tweet us @InformedScot.
Make it your New Year’s resolution to be better informed about what’s happening across learning & skills in business, schools, further & higher education, community & adult learning, and government & wider society. Contact [email protected] to receive a recent copy and find out how to subscribe here.
Posted by admin on December 20, 2016 ·
Image is © Tanami
2016 has been another busy year, so it’s a good time to take stock and say thank you!
As education moved onto the political centre stage, we’ve been working hard to keep Informed Scotland subscribers up to date with learning & skills matters. As well as the monthly digests, we published a Scottish Parliament Election Extra, the fourth annual Organisations & People Special, and three excellent subscriber guest blogs by SCEL, GTC Scotland and Be Personnel. Thanks to our subscribers who’ve provided some great feedback and been spreading the word about how they benefit from receiving Informed Scotland.
Through the Learning & Skills Events Calendar and social media sites we’ve kept a wider audience regularly updated about the opportunities and developments across the landscape. @InformedScot now has over 2,700 followers, an extra 700 since this time last year, and we’re now sharing images on Instagram – thanks to all our engaged followers! Special thanks to Lisa at Media Bloom for helping to keep the Events Calendar updated and for her social media expertise.
Angela has also provided consultancy and editing & proofreading services to repeat and new clients with business interests at home and abroad. Whether it’s been research, intelligence or horizon scanning, writing blogs or papers, or copy-editing and proofreading academic books, business websites, strategy reports or online courses, it’s been as fascinating as ever!
Personal thanks once again to associates including Janey at Mamook Graphics, Elaine at emh connect, and others I’ve had the pleasure of working with in 2016. That includes fellow Edinburgh Editors and members of SfEP – it’s great to be part of such a mutually supportive local network, impressively coordinated by Lesley Ellen.
Final thanks to Craig Dorrall, Video Production Manager at Tanami, for providing this year’s festive photo! Working alongside other businesses is invaluable, and it’s been a pleasure to encounter the creative, professional team at Tanami while working at Hanover House.
The annual Informed Scotland Hottest Topics in Scottish Learning & Skills will be shared here in January (see what made the list in 2015).
Email [email protected] for more information about any of the above, to subscribe to Informed Scotland, or to discuss how we could support your work in 2017.
Posted by admin on December 9, 2016 ·
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The phrase of the month was ‘call to action’, with campaigns and action plans right across the landscape.
The main publication was the Scottish Government’s consultation on a draft Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (STEM) Strategy for Education and Training. The main proposed actions are included in an annex as a handy reference for our subscribers.
Other key publications to inform and challenge are SDS’s updated Financial Sector Skills Investment Plan, an action plan on Tackling the Gender Technology Gap by the Digital Technology Skills Group, Scottish Government’s proposals to speed up and grow teacher recruitment, and Colleges Scotland’s ‘Think Piece’ on the place of colleges in the Learning & Skills Journey.
As always, there were plenty of innovative developments to look out for:
A new Sales & Marketing Academy was launched by Klozers, Genoa Black and fatBuzz to reduce graduate unemployment/underemployment, supported by RBS in Glasgow. A new Construction & Technology Centre for school pupils was opened in Musselburgh by East Lothian Council and Edinburgh College, supported by Scottish Futures Trust and firms including Morrison Construction and Hart Builders. And a new Institute for Inspiring Children’s Futures is to be created at University of Strathclyde, in partnership with CELCIS and Centre for Youth & Criminal Justice.
More positive feedback from subscribers made us smile last month: John Butcher, Executive Director Education & Youth Employment, North Ayrshire Council said, ‘The overview is succinct, clear and very useful’, and Mary De la Peña, Chief Executive, CU Scotland commented, ‘allows us to keep up to date with the issues and developments that matter to us as a small educational charity; it saves us time and keeps us all informed’!
Become an Informed Scotland subscriber so you can keep on top of all the developments. Email [email protected] to request a sample copy.
Posted by admin on November 7, 2016 ·
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In terms of learning & skills, October felt less frantic.
The main items this month were the Scottish Government’s Enterprise & Skills Review Report of Phase 1, and plans for apprenticeships following a consultation of views in Scotland of the UK Apprenticeship Levy.
In both cases this is unfinished business. For the former, the focus shifts to how the ten actions will be implemented in Phase 2. For the latter, we await further clarification of how the Levy will impact employers and apprentices.
Other, less mainstream, items of note included Creative Scotland’s detailed and broad Visual Arts Sector Review. And an Aquaculture Growth strategy, in which skills development is a core priority, produced by a group involving Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre and Scotland Food & Drink among others.
As well as the usual new initiatives, partnerships, websites and resources, October saw the opening of numerous new facilities, including Clyde Training Solutions’ marine training centre in Clydebank, Ayrshire College’s Kilmarnock campus, Borders College’s Business Development Centre in Hawick, and North East Scotland College’s STEM Centre in Fraserburgh.
We’re always interested in how a word or phrase suddenly crops up all over the place – have you noticed the growth of ‘future-proof(ing)’, with or without the hyphen? In the October issue, according to a report by School for CEOs, it’s CEOs who need it!
Are you on Instagram? We’ve just created a brand new informedscot Instagram account to share images of learning & skills from across the country. Connect with us and tag your pictures with #InformedScotland so we can help you to share them!
Become an Informed Scotland subscriber so you can keep on top of all the developments. Email [email protected] to request a sample copy.
Posted by admin on October 11, 2016 ·
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With the Scottish Government once again placing education as top priority in its programme for the year, and Education Scotland’s annual Scottish Learning Festival drawing the crowds, it has been another month of high profile activity.
There was a significant announcement about reducing the workload in school assessments and qualifications at National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher levels, while numerous must-read reports were published:
The Making Maths Count Group final report, Skills Development Scotland’s updated Tourism Skills Investment Plan, the first national Digital Learning & Teaching Strategy, and a Work Placement Standard for Colleges – surprisingly the first produced for the sector – from the Scottish Funding Council.
This was all in addition to the raft of annual statistical reports on equality in colleges from ECU and college leaver destinations from SFC, graduate recruits from AGR, and engineering & technology skills from IET.
More consultations and surveys are looking for your views, including on school governance, NPFS’s parental involvement in schools, General Teaching Council for Scotland’s Fitness to Teach rules, and ARC Scotland’s map of support for 14–25 year-olds with additional support needs.
Libraries made it onto the cover for the first time as they strive to adapt and develop. In Glasgow the National Library of Scotland opened a centre outside the capital at Kelvin Hall, and a Google Digital Garage has ‘popped-up’ at the Mitchell Library. North Ayrshire Council opened its third Employability Hub in Kilbirnie Library, and SLIC and Carnegie UK Trust are behind a 4-day Product Forge Future Libraries Hackathon in Edinburgh this month.
Innovations that caught our eye this month include the Cell Block Science initiative run in three HM Prisons by University of St Andrews with New College Lanarkshire, and the new Social Bite Academy offering employability skills for homeless people.
Favourite feedback this month: ‘it’s an excellent resource with a fantastic range of information’. Become an Informed Scotland subscriber so you can keep on top of all the developments. Email [email protected] to request a sample copy.
Posted by admin on September 21, 2016 ·
by Angela Brunton, Managing Director, Be Personnel Ltd. Continuing our guest blog series featuring Informed Scotland subscribers writing on the theme Making connections across the learning & skills landscape.
I started my recruitment business ten years ago with the objective of providing the best service and experience possible, for clients and candidates alike, through partnership working. We now have several clients who have worked with us for all or most of our time in business as well as candidates who return to use our services for career moves.
My belief in partnership working has never diminished and when invited to write a guest blog addressing skills for employment from a recruitment perspective I decided to look at young people who are the focus of Education Working For All!, the final report of the Wood Commission for Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce, published in June 2014.
It found broad agreement that all of our young people are entitled to an educational experience that is relevant to the world of work, and I believe that much can still be done in employer–school/college partnerships to enhance initiatives already in place to help ensure that relevance.
Excellent strategy papers have been drafted, vast amounts of relevant statistical information collated, and working groups established to identify employer needs and skills required to get young people into work, and it is not for me to intrude into the expertise of their authors and members. However, I hope I can add some value by speaking a little about how we, the employers, could help young people stand out from the crowd in any competitive selection process.
Much has been written about links between schools and colleges and employers, the provision of work experience, careers information, advice and guidance but sometimes the missing link is practical and relevant support about how to shine in the recruitment process. Many employers provide opportunities that include work placements, apprenticeships, graduate programmes or internships – but do they get the best fit and does the young person know what to expect?
Those of you reading this are likely to span decades of different dates for your first day at work and this may influence the expectations you had as well as how you were treated, how you felt, and indeed how you would like to have been treated. My own experience was being sent up a 10 foot ladder where I had to look for and file tax returns, without any thought for my health and safety or checking to see if I was coping; my employment ended when I walked out after three days!! No doubt my actions could be regarded as childish and irresponsible, but days two and three brought no improvement or meaningful communication.
Are young people today just as likely to be treated or respond in the same way? I hope not. I don’t have all the answers but do see evidence of some young people still ill-prepared for work and employers who don’t always recognise this and are not able to provide the supportive environment needed to successfully integrate a young person into the team/company.
We are busy people; we have businesses to run, profits to make, clients and suppliers to satisfy, all of which cannot be denied, but please don’t lose sight of the fact that the school/college leavers of today are the workforce of tomorrow for all of us.
So how can we help? As a recruitment business I advise clients seeking to employ young people to begin by taking simple actions:
- Use jargon free plain language for adverts
- Advertise where young people are likely to look
- Provide a link to your company website
- Ensure an accurate description of the job
- Highlight opportunities for development and progress.
As an employer you could consider forming a partnership with a school or college in your local area to offer practical support through:
- Helping with CV writing
- Identifying skills, characteristics, traits
- Explanations about differing routes into work
- Mock interviews (telephone and face to face)
- Creating awareness of transferable skills
- Explaining clearly what you need from young employees.
The Learning to Work programme led by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) promotes the role of employers in reducing youth unemployment. CIPD also promotes direct contact with young people via youth volunteering programmes, Steps Ahead Mentoring and HR Inspiring the Future.
The Institute for Employment Studies’ research paper Young People’s Views and Experience on Entering the Workplace commissioned by ACAS can perhaps teach all of us more about the successful recruitment and retention of young people, simply by listening!
For further information contact Angela Brunton [email protected]
Website: www.bepersonneltd.com Facebook: bepersonnel Twitter: @BePersonnel
Read previous guest blogs in the series, including those from GTC Scotland, SCEL, Clyde Gateway, EDT Scotland and SCQF Partnership.
Posted by admin on September 13, 2016 ·
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Curriculum for Excellence is back as a hot topic after being absent from the Informed Scotland front cover since the first issue in May 2012! New ‘streamlined’ guidance has been published to ‘liberate the teaching profession from unnecessary bureaucracy’, reigniting some old debates and initiating new ones.
In contrast, widening access and increasing diversity, and digital skills gaps and shortages continue to feature as recurring themes, affecting sectors right across the landscape.
It was pretty much business as usual throughout the summer, making for a bumper edition packed with studies, surveys, audits, statistics, exam results and consultations. In fact the Scottish Government’s Enterprise & Skills Review call for evidence and consultation on its Response to the introduction of the UK Apprenticeship Levy both started and finished over the holiday months.
There are numerous research reports to consolidate knowledge and enlighten or even surprise, including the UCAS Through the lens of students survey of how perceptions influence university applications, the Prince’s Trust’s 40 Life-changing Years report with a survey of 16–25 year-olds and a report on cybersecurity skills from Robert Half.
The word ‘new’ appears almost 50 times in this issue, including a new Network for Curriculum Studies at University of Stirling, a new Gaelic education e-Sgoil in the Western Isles, a new Gender Action Plan from Scottish Funding Council, a new website for Children’s University Scotland and several new courses, from Robert Gordon University’s online Strategic Leadership & Planning accredited by CMI, to Queen Margaret University’s MSc Play Therapy developed with With Kids.
Great feedback from a new subscriber: ‘these are going to be invaluable resources to me’. Become an Informed Scotland subscriber so you can keep on top of all the developments. Email [email protected] to request a sample copy.
Posted by admin on September 1, 2016 ·
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The fourth annual Informed Scotland Organisations & People Special has just been published to coincide with the start of the 2016–17 academic session.
It provides a snapshot of an ever-changing landscape.
Each year we add more items – this year there are links to over 280 organisations, up from 150 in the first edition in 2013.
Subscribers find it a useful directory of the main bodies and institutions operating across business, education, community & adult learning, government and wider society, including:
- Sector-specific skills bodies
- Local authority education departments
- Colleges & universities
- Teacher education institutions
- Knowledge exchange & innovation centres
There have been many changes since we published the 2015 edition – new organisations and mergers, new appointments and promotions, and retirements and closures. We’ve also enlarged the Developing the Young Workforce section to include the 14 industry-led regional groups established to-date.
Subscribers receive the Special as a bonus, in addition to their regular monthly digests. Last year’s issue prompted more great feedback: ‘I, and I am sure many others, like its comprehensive simplicity: you have assembled a list all in one place that is very useful’; ‘Another good edition’; ‘Very helpful as usual thank you’; ‘Well done!’
All new subscribers will receive a copy – find out how to join the growing list and stay well informed.
