Skills Committee Newsletter - November 2009
Contents:
A word from the Chair
Membership of the new joint Skills Committeee
News from the first meeting of the new committeee
Other skills news
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A word from the Chair
Welcome to the first newsletter of the new joint Skills Committee.
On 15th September we met at Anniesland College, Glasgow to re-launch the Skills Committee as a joint committee of the Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland.
We were joined for this occasion by Fiona Hyslop MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, who expressed great enthusiasm for the impact we can make together on skills and workforce development in Scotland.
I am convinced that this is right and that a shared vision and a programme of work formulated through a single committee will make a real difference for the future.
This edition of the newsletter tells you more about what we want our new joint Skills Committee to do and looks at what we discussed at our inaugural meeting. You will also find updates on other skills issues and developments outside the work of the committee.
To find out more about our work in general or obtain more information on anything in this edition of the Skills Committee Newsletter please email Fiona Bates or André Reibig at the Scottish Funding Council
Dr Janet Lowe CBE
Chair of the Skills Committee
Membership of the new joint Skills Committee
We have refreshed the membership of the committee and invited senior executive colleagues from industry and other organisations to join our ranks.
The full list of our members is at Skills Committee
News from the first meeting of the new committee
Cabinet Secretary welcomes a simpler landscape for skills
The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong learning, Fiona Hyslop, has told members of the new joint Skills Committee that she welcomed its formation as a step towards simplifying the skills landscape in Scotland.
Speaking at the joint committee’s first meeting she spoke about her expectations for the group and outlined how its work would complement that of the Scottish Government. She also referred to the important role the joint Skills Committee would play in dealing with national skills issues. This would include dealing with the effects of the economic recession, planning for recovery, supporting workforce development and working with key stakeholders to deliver a seamless and coherent approach to skills interventions.
One of the new committee’s key priorities for the future will be promoting workforce development by encouraging a marked increase in the demand for skills from individuals and employers. At the same time the committee is set to increase its focus on the university sector by taking a holistic approach to skills policy development. It will also respond to new opportunities in schools through the Curriculum for Excellence.
Remit and forward agenda
The new joint Skills Committee has been considering its remit and forward agenda.
At its first meeting on 15th September members noted their responsibility for monitoring and evaluating skills needs in Scotland and advising on how meeting these can be improved through the operations of both the Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland
The committee plans to fulfil its remit by engaging with industry sectors, building the skills utilisation project programme, developing a joint approach to workforce development and advising on interventions aimed at overcoming economic challenges. A document relating to the latter will be published after the next meeting of the committee on 26 November 2009.
You can read more about the work of the Skills Committee and Dr Janet Lowe’s aspirations for the new joint Committee in the autumn 2009 edition of Broadcast magazine. Janet's article, Skills for Scotland's Future: the Skills Committee is reproduced here by kind permission of Scotland's Colleges.
Workforce development action group
One of the first decisions of the new joint Skills Committee has been to set up an action group to advise it and Scottish Government on developing a systematic approach to workforce development in Scotland.
The group will look at what workforce development means, different models of good practice, and methods of increasing demand for it by employers, for example, by promoting vocational and alternative pathways to higher education.
It will initially study three of the Scottish Government’s key sectors: energy, food and drink, and tourism and it will work closely with stakeholders, including the STUC, Scottish Enterprise/HIE, the Scottish Training Federation and the Scottish Chamber of Commerce.
The action group is expected to report back to the committee in spring 2010.
Talentmap Project
The UK-wide Talentmap Project provides employers with comprehensive, practical help and information on how to promote workforce development.
A presentation on the project formed part of the joint Skills Committee’s agenda on 15th September. Members learnt about the Talentmap framework that has been created to help employers engage with the education employment and skills systems. They also heard about a new interactive web tool to search for practical support & funding, plan activity and share knowledge.
The verdict of the committee was that this would be a very useful tool for employers in boosting the skills of their workforce.
Go to talentmap online.
More push behind PACE
The joint Skills Committee has considered a progress report on work conducted by the SDS-led Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) service.
To date this has supported 240 companies and involved 14,000 individuals. However, the committee believes that more needs to be done to ensure PACE is helping a greater number of businesses and individuals in all areas of Scotland. Both organisations were urged to consider the impact SFC and SDS interventions have individually and jointly on the employment prospects of people to ensure best impact. The committee also called for a greater alignment of service across Scotland overall; effectively ‘hiding the wiring’ and making it easier for individuals and businesses to find the right help that they need.
The joint Skills Committee noted that the Scottish Funding Council’s executive would continue to promote the availability of funding to colleges to underwrite PACE activity and it asked that the budgets already created to support this should be used as effectively and flexibly as possible.
Significant progress in industry sectors work
The Joint Skills Committee reviewed the progress made on the rolling programme of industry sectors investigations developed since the Skills Committee began its work more than three years ago.
It welcomed the significant progress made in aligning the action plans of the Scottish Government and the Renewable Energy Skills Group and in setting up an ICT Skills Network. It also welcomed that the proposal to establish a Skills Academy for Food & Drink Manufacturing in Scotland was near completion and it noted progress in sectors such as Tourism; Construction; Financial Services, and Sport and Leisure.
Learning to Work Two: consultation update
The responses of over 70 organisations and individuals to SFC’s Learning to Work Two consultation were considered by the joint Skills Committee at its 15 September meeting.
The Scottish Funding Council’s executive presented the key points made in the consultation on this “refresh”of SFC’s employability strategy. In the discussion that followed committee members welcomed the level of response and noted that these had come from a wide range of stakeholders.
The responses seen by the joint Skills Committee reflected a strong belief that employability should be embedded in all courses in a way that was appropriate to different subjects and course levels. They also indicated that while work experience is a core element of employability alternative models of work related learning could be more effective and preferable to a national work placement scheme.
Respondents generally believed that good practice should be shared in order to build on existing employability work and that the monitoring and evaluation of employability should be developed further to demonstrate outcomes and progress.
The SFC executive is analysing these and other responses and the Scottish Funding Council’s board will consider the revised strategy at its meeting in November.
Other skills news
Skills utilisation
The latest edition of the Scottish Government’s skills utilisation e-bulletin has now been published.
This details the progress made in making better use of skills in the workplace and includes an article by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Fiona Hyslop MSP, on the launch of the Scottish Government’s review of leadership and management. It also provides information on the Skills Utilisation Cross-Sectoral network which was set up to connect organisations in the public, private and third sectors with an interest in encouraging better use of workplace skills to enable partners to work together and support each other.
It is available on the Scottish Government website.
You may also wish to look at the Scottish Government’s advice portal on better skills use.
The portal highlights some of the key benefits of effective skills use, signposts relevant web resources and provides web links to other organisations. It is anticipated that the site will evolve over time as more content and tools become available.
Forthcoming joint Skills Committee meetings
11 February 2010
20 May 2010
(Further dates will be announced in due course)
Contact and further information
We welcome contributions from colleges, universities and employers to our newsletter. Please contact Fiona Bates, Clerk to the joint Skills Committee, Strategic Development Group, Scottish Funding Council, tel: 0131 313 6586, email: fbates@sfc.ac.uk to make a contribution, request further information, or add your name to the distribution list.
Further information regarding the work of the joint Skills Committee and access to committee papers is available at Skills Committee resources.
We are working to refresh the newsletter and welcome any suggestions regarding its future content and format.
The next edition of the newsletter will be published in early January 2010.