Learning to Work: The Council's Employability Strategy
Learning to Work is SFC's employability strategy for supporting college and university work to build capacity and good practice with a view to enhancing student employability. We define employability as:
"a combination of knowledge, skills and attributes (attitudes and values) which result in capable people who will be effective in their chosen occupation - as employees, employers and entrepreneurs".
Learning to Work 2004-11
SFC published Learning to Work in 2004 and, in 2006, Circular SFC/12/06: Employability: Implementation Plan for Learning to Work (see SFC archive). The programme of work, which aimed to better enable colleges and universities to deliver on their commitment to quality enhancement in the area of employability, included:
- £4 million to develop and embed employability in learning and teaching provision in the university sector (Employability: strategic funding for higher education institutions: see Circular SFC/82/06 at the SFC archive
- the creation of the Scottish Higher Education Employability Network (SHEEN);
- a Baseline Study of employability-related activity in Scotland's colleges;
- £6 million to support college engagement with employers (Allocation of additional funding to colleges for employer engagement and knowledge transfer: see Circular SFC/38/2007 at the SFC archive); and
- support for the Aiming University Learning @ Work project.
Learning to Work Two 2010-14
In 2009 we refreshed our employability strategy to take account of an increased emphasis on employability and skills in Scottish Government priorities and the introduction of the New Horizons Fund for universities. Following extensive consultation and discussion with key stakeholders we published Learning to Work Two – developing the Council’s employability strategy: consultation outcomes, action plan and invitation to develop proposals (Circular SFC/41/2009).
The strategy consists of work in the following key areas:
- Work Placement Projects;
- development of employability support: £200,000 over four years to support the Scottish Higher Education Employability Forum (SHEEF). The role of SHEEF is to:
- foster and support institutional collaboration to develop and share good practice across the sector; and
- promote effective dialogue at a strategic level with student and employer bodies.
We will explore the extent of need and wish for a similar network for colleges;
- developing enterprise and entrepreneurship education: £600,000 per year for three years to support the Scottish Institute for Enterprise. Discussion with key stakeholders to progress other aspects of this objective is ongoing; and
- developing workforce development: A joint Skills Committee working group is taking forward work in this area.
Monitoring and evaluation of our employability strategy is ongoing.
Useful links
- Employability in colleges: baseline study and next steps (see Circular SFC/15/2007 at the SFC archive)
- Learning to Work (published in 2004 in our archive)
- Mark Batho keynote address for Aiming University Learning at Work seminar January 2010 [PDF]
- Mark Batho speech on 12 January 2011 for the Education into enterprise launch
- Review of Developing Employer Engagement Programme (DEEP) and Knowledge Transfer Grant Programme (KTG) Year 1 report
- Scottish Institute for Enterprise
- Scottish Higher Education Employability Forum
- External links