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Skills Committee Resources

15 July 2011 Event: Skills in Focus - SFC co-hosted a seminar with Skills Development Scotland (SDS) to present some recent research in the area of skills and productivity aimed at senior academics and policy makers to discuss new ideas and innovative solutions. Below are links to the papers from the event:

March 2011

In October 2009 the Scottish Energy Advisory Board asked Skills Development Scotland (SDS) to lead on the development of a skills investment plan to identify future skills and employment demand across the energy sector, particularly taking account of future opportunities likely to arise from an increased demand for renewable energy. SDS engaged with a comprehensive range of partners and stakeholders, including SFC, to develop the Skills Investment Plan for the Energy Sector.

The Plan identifies the potential for up to 95,000 job opportunities across the energy sector to 2020. Ensuring the supply of a highly skilled workforce will be critical to take full advantage of these opportunities. To facilitate this, the Plan provides a set of short and longer term key actions required by government and industry which fall into five strands of activity:

• Raising Awareness of the Sector - a unifying campaign with the Education Sector and Industry Partners;
• Developing Skills for the Sector - increased investment in vocational training;
• Influencing the Skills system and mainstream resource allocation;
• Building capacity and flexibility to meet industry and regional labour market requirements; and 
• Effective use of sector intelligence to inform decision making.

This Plan builds on the extensive collaborative work programme SFC started in 2007 to investigate skills issues for the emerging renewables industry. This work was progressed by the Skills Committee's Renewable Energy Skills Group (RESG). The group produced a Framework for Action in 2009 which identified key areas for addressing the skills needs of the renewables industry, and this Framework has fed into the development of the Skills Investment Plan for the Energy Sector.

The Skills Committee strongly supports the overall direction of the Skills Investment Plan and believes that it will be an effective tool to help address future skills needs of the energy sector. The Committee will review the Plan on a regular basis, particularly to consider updated labour market intelligence for the sector. The full Skills Investment Plan can be accessed via the following link: Skills Investment Plan for the Energy Sector [PDF]

November 2010

Responding to the Strategic Forum and to business need, in September 2009 the Skills Committee set up an Action Group chaired by Linda McKay (Skills Committee member and Principal of Forth Valley College) to establish what needs to be done to improve the system of support for workforce development in Scotland. After collating and considering the evidence, the Action Group set out a Framework for Action which was endorsed by the Strategic Forum in November 2010. The implementation of the framework will deliver a system that is tailor-made (local and sectoral), responsive and agile, fitting to the Scottish system, and value for money.

The key recommendations in the framework focus on:

• the need for an existing public agency to lead on workforce development in Scotland in the longer term - Skills Development Scotland (the remit of public agencies to be more clearly defined and a more joined up interagency approach to be adopted);
• public agencies providing better information on public investment in workforce development related services, and improving co-ordination and effectiveness of investment through aligned business planning and a focus on longer term outcomes; and
• a need to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the public offer by working with the private sector to encourage a greater ownership and co-investment in workforce development.

The Skills Committee will consider progress with the framework's implementation on a regular basis, which we will publish. The full Framework for Action can be accessed via the following link: Workforce Development in Scotland: A Framework for Action [PDF]