Scottish Training Federation Conference – 2012

Chairman Stuart Leitch welcomed around 160 delegates claiming that work based learning continued to provide quality training delivery that both the Scottish Government and Skills Development Scotland has invested their faith in.

Facilitator David Cameron said that we need to generate energy and creativity and in a lot of cases employers do not lift their heads to see opportunities and challenges.

Professor Ewart Keep from the Centre of Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance was the next speaker. He reminded the audience that youth unemployment started to rise in 2004 before the economy went into recession. Recruitment strategies need considered, there is a lack of openings for young people – if they have no experience they don't get a job but if there is not a job they cannot get experience. Informal methods of recruitment continue to gain popularity i.e. word of mouth – this locked young people out of employment. Youngsters get stuck in low pay jobs, insecure, casual and with no training opportunities.

The Wolf Review revealed that 1/3 of young people in England study for vocational qualifications that have little or no currency in the labour market. In other words they are achieving nothing and the qualification delivery is not good value for money. There is nothing to suggest that the situation in Scotland is any different.

Progression in the workplace tends to be reward for hours devoted but achievements do not make you better off.

Professor Keep concluded:
“Unless and until we start to improve job quality at the bottom end of the labour market and change employers attitudes and behaviour, we will face patchy progression of youth into employment.”

Chair of the Cross Party Skills group at Scottish Government, John Park, MSP gave a keynote speech. He warned that as apprenticeships moved up the political agenda – 25,000 MAs – things can be oversimplified. Apprenticeships he claimed must be structured and policy needs to be fit for purpose. Interestingly John Park, being a Labour MP, spoke without a script of speech written for him. He demonstrated a clear interest in tackling challenges in Scotland – skill shortages, unemployment and the deep and far reaching need to do something about it.

Damien Yeates, Chief Executive of Skills Development Scotland thanked training providers for helping SDS to achieve their targets. Completion rates for apprenticeships stands at 75%. He stressed that pre 2008 youth employment flatlined and suggested that something systemic was wrong. We have lost the practice of bringing young people into our businesses.

If young people are out of the labour market, where are they going to be when we need them? Five workers for every retiree. Average age of chartered engineers in Scotland is 58. Currently there appears to be no long term recruitment strategies and not enough investment for the future. He made a plea for every business in Scotland to have a Youth Policy. “Do a bit more than you have ever done before.”

Three out of four school leavers now go on to further education. SDS is trying to radically reform career advice into Career Management Skills. This will lay emphasis on life skills and become core within the Curriculum for Excellence in the classroom.

A sample of 11-16 year olds identified employers as the genuine source of information on jobs. Damien Yeates felt that employers need to engage more with young people.

Between conference speakers there were “Carousel” sessions lasting ten minutes each. During these 12 organisations explained to the audiences who moved on to their tables just what they did for training providers. Included in these sessions were Investors in People, Scottish Credit Qualifications Framework, Young Scot, City & Guilds, SQA, SCQF, Skills Development Scotland (SDS).

SDS reported that the new starts were up on the same period last year. Peak recruitment would come in the next three months. Employer Recruitment Incentives would be targeted in the future and “unlikely” to return as in 2011 and 2012. SDS told me that if our places were not taken up then they would take them away from us.

SDS stressed that their priorities were 16-19 year olds and level 3 qualifications. They are trying to minimise level 2 qualifications where there is no benefit to employers.