Scotland's Economy
Education Working for All
June 3, 2014 by Sir Ian Wood, Chair of the Commission for Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce 1 Comment | Category Economy
The Commission for Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce publishes its final report today.
Our Commission sat at an opportune time to look at significantly enhancing Scotland’s approach to vocational education and youth employment. The reforms which have already taken place in schools and colleges as well as the growth in the number of Modern Apprenticeships provide a strong platform for change.
Our report lays out a number of steps to develop a new approach to vocational education, with work experience built in, starting in the senior phase of school and offering clear pathways to skilled and rewarding employment.
As we said at the time of publication of our Interim Report, Scotland has an ingrained culture that values higher education way ahead of vocational education. The Commission believes both are critically important to our future economic prosperity and, from the response to our Interim Report, we believe this view is increasingly supported across Scotland’s education, employer and political communities.
Our recommendations seek to enhance the value of vocational options in the eyes of young people, parents and employers and establish a much stronger vocational education framework.
Through partnerships between schools, colleges and other training providers, we can offer industry relevant vocational qualifications for the majority of school leavers not planning to go to university as a mainstream part of the senior phase curriculum. And our recommendations link the vocational pathways starting at school much more effectively to higher level college and apprenticeship opportunities for young people leaving school.
Role of Employers in Education and Employing More Young People
Ultimately our recommendations all lead to the workplace and, although there are many notable exceptions, Scottish employers are not playing a significant enough role in developing our young workforce nor in recruiting young people. Currently only 29 per cent of employers recruit directly from education, only 13 per cent take on Modern Apprentices and only 27 per cent offer work experience. The employers we have spoken to say they are keen to do more and our recommendations are designed to support them and others to do so.
The Commission recommends essentially a contract between employers, education and young people. To develop and support this, we recommend the establishment of 15-20 employer-led Regional Invest in Youth groups across Scotland, appropriately resourced and funded. They will have two key tasks:
- To facilitate every secondary school in Scotland to have a long term 3-5 year partnership with a local employer(s). This will incorporate an agreed business plan and agenda to ensure employers are playing a full role in exposing young people to the work place experience, helping to provide better career information and generally helping introduce employability skills into schools
- Work with local employers of all sizes to encourage and support them in recruiting more young people directly from education. There is little doubt that employers in Scotland have lost the habit of recruiting young people and our recommendations include a number of positive and negative incentives toward much better use of our very valuable young skills
As an example of this, we are recommending the introduction of Foundation Apprenticeships in schools as part of the school/college vocational programme. This will take away one year of the cost of a normal three year apprenticeship and will make the young people more work ready. We’re also recommending more incentives for small companies to take on more apprentices. We also have a number of other measures which include the role of public bodies and large private companies working with their supply chains to encourage Invest In Youth activities. Additionally, we’re proposing companies in receipt of public funding support should be encouraged to develop Invest In Youth policies.
Equalities
We have a significant section on advancing equalities. Effectively we conclude the diversity in our communities should be reflected in the diversity in the work place and thus:
- Proactive steps are needed to counter gender stereotyping education and gender segregation in employment pursuits
- Proactive steps are required to counter prejudice in the employment of Scotland’s black and minority ethnic youngsters
- More resources are required to help young people with disabilities and care leavers into employment
We’ve identified two important cross cutting equality issues –
- Embedding equality education across Curriculum for Excellence
- Promotion and communication of careers options to actively target equalities groups to promote diverse participation
And we make a number of specific recommendations for each of gender, black and ethnic minorities, disabled young people and care leavers.
Looking Ahead
We are very pleased that Scottish Government and COSLA received our Interim Report enthusiastically and that the implementation of many of the recommendations is now being planned, Our final report highlights the essential role that business and industry can and must play in realising the potential of our young people. This is a natural follow on to our proposals in vocational education and we are hopeful that Scottish Government and COSLA will recognise this and implement our final report proposals on a fast track basis.
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I am encouraged by the recommendations number 33 -36 relating to disabled young people and hope deaf young people will benefit from their implementation.
Deafness is not a learning disability and there is no reason with the right support they cannot achieve the same outcomes as hearing young people. However, the National Deaf Children Society’s (NDCS) report “Close the Gap” highlights that deaf young people are under-represented in the workforce and higher education:
http://www.ndcs.org.uk/about_us/campaign_with_us/scotland/close_the_gap.html
The National Deaf Children’s Society (Scotland) would welcome the opportunity to work with the government, statutory agencies and employers to improve outcomes and ensure the recommendations are implemented.
We also believe that more could be done to support deaf children in the early years and during their time at school so they don’t enter the world of work at a disadvantage.