Radical overhaul of skills system needed for economic success

Scotland is on the verge of an economic transformation. The next wave of technological advancement, alongside the quickening race to net zero, will mean a reinvention of existing industries and the emergence of new ones.

However, our ability to grasp the opportunities in front of us requires a revolution in how we harness our most important asset; our people.

Last Autumn, the Scottish Government asked me to lead an independent review of Scotland’s skills delivery landscape. It is the £3 billion learning system which equips our population with the knowledge to realise their individual potential and fuel our economy. From funding our college and university system to delivering on-the-job training and apprenticeships, the system is complex and critical.

The conclusion of my work is clear: the skills system is not fit for the substantially different future approaching us. We need a radical rethink or the job opportunities that arise from a changing economy risk being lost; a repeat of the 1980s.

The urgency of action cannot be overstated. Scotland’s workforce is shrinking. The Office of National Statistics thinks the nation’s population has peaked and will decline over the course of this century, at a faster rate than any other part of the UK. So, we need a skills system that is world class and can harness every ounce of talent in our people.

I have spent time with government agencies, schools, colleges, universities, business and learners of all ages. Inside the system, I have met only passionate people with good intentions.  However, the skills delivery landscape is damagingly fragmented. It has become siloed, with different agencies advocating for their particular part of the system. 

A false and harmful division has taken root, between education on the one hand and vocation on the other. We are wrongly told that education delivers learning and it is vocation that delivers skills. But this is nonsense. It is patently untrue to say that academic pathways don’t deliver skills for the workplace or that people only become work-ready if they undertake a vocational course or apprenticeship. 

Worse still, different parts of our learning system pit themselves against each other. Some argue young people are being warehoused in years of higher education to end up overqualified for the job they move in to. Others say people risk being rushed into the workplace too early, at the expense of higher education and the development of broader, life skills. In reality, both views are hopelessly simplistic. 

So, we need a revolution in how we think about learning. Skills are the product of a good learning system and Scotland’s future workplace will need a diversity of skills and multiple types of learning delivered throughout our lives.

These different types of learning need to be equally respected and valued. There is no golden pathway. For more than a generation, a culture has persisted that treats university as the ultimate post-school destination, with every other option a varying degree of second best. That attitude needs to end; it is a relic, it leaves people behind and stigmatises other valuable forms of learning. I say that whilst also loudly and proudly saying our universities are amazing. They are fantastic for many, but just not right for everyone.

We need a new culture: all learning that contributes to an individual reaching a positive destination has equal merit. There are multiple pathways to success. I have been blown away by the potential of our college sector. Rooted in communities, bridging a gap between education and employers, they are a prized asset. So too, our apprenticeship system is a critical ingredient for success and needs an acceleration in adoption.

In short, we need a single, coherent learning system. Not a collection of isolated and disjointed parts.

The language we use is too often a confusing maze of terms and acronyms; a symptom of fragmentation. Take apprenticeships as an example. A Foundation Apprenticeship - a great concept - is neither an apprenticeship (there’s no paid job) nor foundation-level learning. A Graduate Apprenticeship is actually an undergraduate course. 

It is a similar story at school. I have tried recently to help my son with his S6 choices. But it is an alphabet soup of options, including FAs, NCs, NPAs, HNCs, Highers, Advanced Highers and SFGs. It’s a headache for pupils, parents and I dare say teachers too. Fortunately, Professor Louise Hayward is doing great work focussing in on the future of school qualifications. Our respective thinking has much in common.

In my report to Ministers, I have set out a framework for change. Government needs to show clearer leadership on what it expects from the system. It can’t be allowed to evolve of its own accord.

We need a single funding body for all learning and training provision, replacing the current myriad of different funders and schemes that separate out university, college, apprenticeship and training funding. That funding needs added simplicity, flexibility and it needs to treat different learning routes equally.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) has done an excellent job in establishing apprenticeships as a key part of the landscape.  However, the same structures that were needed to build this element to the system are now holding it back. Apprenticeships have to be properly embedded into the education and learning system, not carved out into a separate agency, with uncertain, annual funding from different sources.  

We need a single qualifications body to develop the framework of all learning, from school onwards. 

In short, if we want a joined-up learning system, let’s join it up.

Support for business is fragmented too, with everyone from local authorities and SDS, to the job centre and business gateway offering support. It is time for the enterprise agencies to provide the crystal clear, single gateway of support for businesses looking to invest in their workforce.

This leaves one critical, missing cog from our system. Scotland needs a dedicated careers agency and a truly national careers service. I want to see SDS reformed into Scotland’s careers body; a mission where it can make a transformational difference with a sole focus. It needs to arm school pupils, students and people of all ages across Scotland with the information needed to identify the right learning choices and job opportunities in our rapidly changing economy.  

That doesn’t mean a careers agency delivers everything. Local delivery and partnerships are key. There are also valuable organisations focussed on supporting marginalised groups and specific sectors.  But a national careers agency can provide the leadership needed to embed world class careers education in communities and education institutions on the ground. It can also provide the momentum and resource to deliver on route map identified in Grahame Smith’s recent careers review.

There are further recommendations in the report, including:

-      Scottish Government needs to identify the national priorities for skills development. But beyond that, it is time to give the power, flexibility and funding to local areas and regions to determine what the right priorities are for them. Let’s trust our regional economic partnerships and further education institutions with the flexibility to deliver on the ground;

-      Scotland needs a new, national, lifelong and digital training record for everyone, which captures the skills and qualifications we attain throughout our lives. A huge prize would then be to use smart algorithms to connect that with digital career and jobs information;

-      The remit and role of the Developing Young Workforce network needs expanded to put employer views right into the heart of national and regional skills planning, to inform the development of curricula, apprenticeship frameworks and other qualifications;

-      There must be a comprehensive audit of post-school qualifications to make pathways through the learning system far easier to understand.

All of this adds up to a substantial overhaul of Scotland’s multi-billion pound skills system putting the needs of people, as learners, first. 

Some will view this only as a criticism of what has been delivered to date. They shouldn’t. This is not a response to failure. My review was never a backward-looking, performance appraisal of any part of the system. This is a response to the scale of change and opportunity facing Scotland’s economy. This may be the most important investment in national infrastructure we make.

My review is now done. You can read it in full here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/fit-future-developing-post-school-learning-system-fuel-economic-transformation/

Thank you to the hundreds of people in the system - and the users of it - whom supported my work and generously provided their insight. 

Now over to you, Ministers…