The organisation responsible for representing employers on skills issues has today, published its manifesto for the Scottish elections in May, and urged Scotland’s political parties to put skills and the delivery of a skilled workforce at the heart of their manifesto policy commitments.

The Alliance of Sector Skills Councils in Scotland (Alliance Scotland) through its 23 constituent Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) represents employers in areas ranging from construction to financial services and hospitality to energy.

Alliance Scotland is urging policy makers through 17 specific policy recommendations to recognise the importance of a skilled workforce to delivering sustainable economic growth and to protect investment in skills accordingly.

By being able to understand the skills requirements of the workforce, both today and in the future, Alliance Scotland is able to work with schools, universities, colleges and training providers to ensure there is the right supply of skills to meet the demand required in these sectors and plug the skills gap. This ensures that skills funding is properly targeted at meeting employer needs, as well as those that are unemployed have the right skills to get them back into employment, especially important in the current cash-constrained environment.

Specific policies called for in the manifesto include incentivising entry into training in those sectors with specific skills requirements; increasing the take up of vocational training opportunities; ensuring high quality information is available to determine skills requirements; strengthening the links between the award of public procurement contracts and apprenticeship provision and strengthening the links between industry and education.

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Alliance Scotland’s 5 pledges calls on policy makers to:

1. Put employers at the heart of the skills landscape and maintain a skilled workforce.

2. Ensure skills policy is based on robust labour market intelligence.

3. Ensure high quality information, advice and guidance is easily available and accessible to deliver skills requirements.

4. Deliver qualification strategies that meet the needs of employers.

5. Increase participation in and widen access to apprenticeships, vocational training and work-based learning opportunities.

Specific policies include:

1. Significantly increasing the take-up of vocational training opportunities, work-based training and modern apprenticeships linked to employment.

2. Removing current age-related restrictions on access to modern apprenticeship funding.

3. Establishing a direct link between the award of public procurement contracts and the creation of apprenticeship opportunities.

4. Targeting incentives for learning to increase education and skills attainment in those sectors with high recruitment demand.

5. Introducing targeted incentives to stimulate employer investment in skills.

6. Ensuring the delivery of adequate labour market intelligence to ensure skills requirements are being met and education and skills policy is being developed accordingly.

7. Strengthening links between industry and education, including reinforcing the representation of employer interests on school governing boards, enhancing work experience programmes and promoting business-education exchanges.

8. Increasing the use of new technologies to ensure policy makers have the latest information on matching skills requirements with employer needs.

9. Developing clear performance indicators that demonstrate the link between the course or programme of study pursued and employment outcomes, so that maximum value is achieved.

10. Ensuring wider recognition of employer-based learning.

The latest skills assessments predict significant employment growth for a range of established sectors of the Scottish economy over the next few years including creative and cultural industries, waste management and renewable energy.

More modest growth in employment is predicted for a number of other sectors, including IT and telecoms, financial services, the motor trade, tourism and retail.

Jacqui Hepburn, Director of the Alliance of Sector Skills Councils in Scotland said: “We are delighted to be launching our manifesto and urge Scotland’s policy makers to put skills at the heart of their policy commitments. The importance of delivering a skilled workforce cannot be underestimated if we are to continue our recovery from recession and deliver sustainable economic growth, and it is imperative that the right skills are available to employers in the right place and at the right time.”

(GK)