Minister Alex Neil MSP has hailed City & Guilds' Scottish Manifesto for Skills as 'a route map for the future'. As unemployment figures continue to rise in Scotland and the government strives to pull the economy out of recession, the leading awarding organisation has produced a document that offers some solutions.



Industry leaders from across Scotland joined Minister for Housing and Communities Alex Neil MSP, who was also a former Convenor of the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee, at the Scottish Parliament on 11 November for the introduction of City & Guilds' Scotland: a Manifesto for Skills.

Alex Neil MSP said: 'This Manifesto for Skills is well thought out and provides a route map for the future as well as dealing with the problems of recession. If our nation is to recover quickly then investment in our people skills is key to success. City & Guilds has down the years demonstrated its total commitment to skills development and its manifesto proposals need to be taken seriously for the benefit of all.'

Chris Jones, Director-General of City & Guilds, said: 'As the economic downturn diminishes and the economy begins to recover, creating and sustaining a "skilled individual" will be of fundamental importance for people to enjoy a successful path through the labour market. City & Guilds is well placed to continue to work with the Scottish Government and other partners to ensure that businesses and learners alike can gain the maximum benefit from the Government's investment. Education and training in Scotland has every chance to emerge stronger than ever before.'

The Manifesto for Skills document identifies six ideas which City & Guilds believes are important for the development of education and training in Scotland. This includes policy proposals across a range of themes, including helping employers engage with training, and giving greater power to individuals to pursue their own training requirements.

One proposal focuses on SMEs - 97% of businesses in Scotland. Correctly identifying and prioritising their training needs is therefore essential in order to reach a large proportion of the workforce. 'Scotland: a Manifesto for Skills' recommends making it easier for SMEs to claim support, and establishing a separate grant line to address these priorities. At the other end of the spectrum, further support for individuals is recommended through the transformation of Learning Accounts into Learning Accounts Plus. These would allow individuals to save money specifically for their own training, with the support of their employer, and enable greater flexibility of how money towards training was spent.

Another area where Scotland faces challenges is in its lower productivity rates, compared with the UK average. Penny De Valk, Chief Executive of ILM, commented: 'The paradox of the Scottish economy is that despite high skills levels, its low rate of productivity is holding it back as a nation. With its skills base Scotland should be a pace setter for the rest of the UK economy. The evidence suggests the issue is one of skills utilisation and management skills are central to the advancement of productivity.' The manifesto proposes to tackle this by investing in leadership and management skills through the provision of high-quality and consistent training. Having fully qualified and skilled managers, particularly at middle management level, could therefore create significant benefits for productivity.

Penny De Valk continues: 'Scotland's leaders and managers have a crucial role to play in unlocking the capability of their employees.  Only when leadership and management skills and the provision of high-quality training is improved will organisations be able to realise national potential.'

-ENDS-

For further information contact Robert Bruce, City & Guilds Scotland Manager, on 0141 341 5700 or via robert.bruce@cityandguilds.com.

Notes to editors:

Scotland: a Manifesto for Skills' six policy proposals are:

• Reduce the likelihood of 'rogue traders' undercutting qualified members of the workforce and endangering consumers through the expansion of the Licence to Practise schemes.
• Extension of Individual Learning Accounts into a fully personalised system of skills funding applicable to all post-compulsory education - we call this Learning Accounts plus.
• A call for greater equity between adult students in colleges and universities. City & Guilds believes that there are cost effective measures that can be undertaken to balance some of the inequalities that exist, such as the difficulty adult students in colleges have in accessing grants and loans, and a lesser ability to access childcare in Further Education in Scotland.
• Increasing the amount of vocational learning on offer in schools and encouraging a greater flexibility of choice for learners, including the ability to mix learning options to suit individual needs. This will, we believe, be key to driving up the skills of school leavers and for raising the esteem of vocational learning.
• To increase the ease with which SMEs can claim support for training their employees and the flexibility with which this can be delivered through the Scottish Funding Council. A separate grant line should be established which clearly focuses on addressing these training priorities and can work to ensure proper SME representation when national funding priorities are set.
• There are numerous studies that show leadership and management as being a key strategic area for economic development. These skills could also have the particular benefit in Scotland of helping encourage higher levels of productivity. City & Guilds is calling on the Scottish Government to introduce a strategy to coordinate the development of leadership and management skills across all industry sectors in Scotland.

City & Guilds (http://www.cityandguilds.com/) has had a dedicated presence in Scotland for the last 13 years, offering Scottish vocational qualifications (SVQs), vocational awards and customised services to our centres from Dumfries and Galloway to the Shetland Isles. We work with partners throughout Scotland to ensure that we meet the needs of our nation's industry and its learners. Our Scottish Advisory Committee includes members from Skills Development Scotland, Scottish Government and Scotland's Colleges. Our Scotland office, based in Glasgow, provides local knowledge, support and customer care both one to one and through a calendar of workshops and events. 

• A full copy of Scotland: A Manifesto for Skills can be downloaded from City & Guilds.