Scottish Government

The Lifelong Learning Strategy for Scotland

2 Setting the context

• The stakeholders
• The socio-economic context
• The policy environment
• • EU and beyond
  • United Kingdom
  • Scotland
  • Equal opportunities
  • Sustainable development
• The current funding system
• How well does the current lifelong learning system perform?

The stakeholders

Scotland's Lifelong Learning Strategy must be relevant to, and informed by, the key stakeholders in Scotland.

• People have an interest in learning in order to acquire new skills to further their careers or to benefit their lives in other ways. Individuals spend an estimated 500 million each year on lifelong learning in Scotland ¹.
• Publicly-funded providers and centres of excellence of learning. 33% of taught learning takes place in publicly-funded learning institutions, such as secondary schools, local authority community learning and development centres, Further Education Colleges and Higher Education Institutions ².
• National Public Bodies and delivery agents. The Executive channels most of its spend on lifelong learning through the Scottish Higher and Further Education Funding Councils and the Enterprise Networks. The Student Awards Agency for Scotland administers support funding for students in Higher Education. The Scottish Qualifications Authority, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education and the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education have key roles to play in the qualifications framework and quality assurance in lifelong learning. learndirect scotland and Careers Scotland provide information, advice and guidance to learners and businesses. A recent addition is Futureskills Scotland which has been given a remit to collate, analyse and make available good quality labour market intelligence and, like Careers Scotland, is located within the Enterprise Networks.
• Employers have a key interest in what the lifelong learning system provides in terms of the knowledge, attitude and skills they need in their workforce. Around half of all adult learning episodes are purchased, and a quarter provided, by employers ³. Employers spend an estimated 2.2 billion each year on lifelong learning in Scotland ⁴. Government across the UK is setting up a new network of employer-led Sector Skills Councils, to be developed by the Sector Skills Development Agency, to replace the former National Training Organisations. These new bodies will play a vital role in articulating employer demand for skills and bringing influence to bear to facilitate relevant provision of training by the supply side.
• Professional, voluntary and community organisations. A wide range of professional organisations provide learning themselves and accredit qualifications defined by other bodies. Voluntary organisations play a very valuable role in bringing learning into the workplace and communities through community learning and development programmes. Around 10% of all taught adult learning is provided by these groups ⁵.
• Trade Unions have a key role to play in workforce development through influencing employers to provide training and employees to take up the opportunities. They also play an important role in providing learning themselves and leading workplace learning projects.
• Private training firms contract with employers, individuals and goverment (UK and Scottish Executive) to deliver training. Around a quarter of taught adult learning is provided by private training firms ⁶.

The socio-economic context

Our strategy for lifelong learning needs to take full account of the context in which it operates if we are successfully to address, and meet, our objectives. We need to understand the Scottish economic and social background as these relate to lifelong learning.

The Executive's recent analysis of vocational education and training in Scotland highlighted two socio-economic challenges for the future:

(1) relatively low economic growth and low productivity compared to some other advanced countries; and

(2) a reduction in the working age population.

The Executive's strategy for the Enterprise Networks, 'A Smart, Successful Scotland' is aimed at tackling the first of these challenges. Learning and skills is one of its three key themes, because economic growth and productivity are linked to the skills of workers and the use made of those skills. This strategy specifically addresses the need for employers to recognise, use and develop the skills of those of their workforce and therefore complements 'A Smart, Successful Scotland'.

The second challenge, that of demography, is also important. Scotland's population is expected to decline over the next 20 years as a consequence of a falling birth rate. The chart below shows the projected decline in the number of young people aged under 16, over the next 20 years.

Chart 2 Projected Population of Under 16s in Scotland: 2000-2022

Source: GRO 2000-based population projections

One result of this is that the proportion of older people in the workforce is expected to increase significantly against the younger cohorts. The charts overleaf highlight this by depicting (i) the changing demographic profile of those over 50 years old compared to those aged below 16, and (ii) the overall projected population composition for Scotland until 2022. The latter shows that the proportion of the population aged 50 and over is projected to increase from 33% in 2002 to 42% in 2022.

Chart 3 Changing Demographic Profile of Scotland: 2000-2022

Source: GRO 2000-based population projections

Chart 4 Projected population profile of Scotland: 2000-2022

Source: GRO 2000-based population projections

"It is the man who stops learning, whether he is 20 or 80, who is really old."
The American Magazine, Thinking Out Loud by Henry Ford, October 1934

There are a number of implications arising out of a growing post-retirement population. At present, the labour market has a greater supply of older workers than younger workers and the demographic trends indicate that this will continue. Maintaining a sufficient supply of labour that is able to respond quickly to changes in demand will require older workers to stay in the labour market for longer.

As well as the demographic transition (described above) an additional factor in Scotland is that older workers have been disproportionately affected by unemployment compared to younger workers and to their counterparts in England or Wales.

As the demographic changes continue, employers will increasingly need a workforce of all ages and with the skills for the 21st century. At the same time, many older people may wish to continue working. The UK Government's Pensions Green Paper ⁷ sets out the ways they will encourage older people to remain in the workforce through their pensions, benefits and employment policies. The Performance and Innovation Unit document, 'Winning the Generation Game' (April 2000), pointed out that uneven access to lifelong learning is one of the reasons that prevent people from making a full contribution to working life as they get older. Therefore the need for access to appropriate training opportunities for older people, both for those in employment and for those seeking employment, will increase in the future.

Another potential barrier to employment is the lack of training given to older workers. Figures from the Labour Force Survey show that in 1998 only 17 per cent of employees aged 50 plus had received training in the last 13 weeks, compared with 29 per cent of those aged below 50. As older workers are generally less likely to participate in job-related training, they have higher barriers to overcome should they be confronted late in their career with the need to engage in instructor-led learning. Indeed, there is now considerable evidence ⁸ that older workers in the UK are less likely to receive work-related training than their younger counterparts. Ensuring that we have the supply of skills we need to match demand means that lifelong learning for all ages will be increasingly important. The UK Government is committed to do more to promote employment amongst those aged 50 and over and to tackle age discrimination. A key UK initiative in this area is the Age Positive campaign and the Code of Practice on Age Diversity in Employment.

A healthy and sustainable labour market, characterised by a low unemployment rate, a high level of labour force participation and low skill shortages, is vital if we are to meet both the low growth, low productivity and demographic challenges described above. This can be achieved through flexibility in the labour market's response to changes in the demand and supply of labour. Flexibility contributes to improved productivity in the economy, reduced skill mismatches and promotes competitiveness. In a flexible labour market, changes to employment patterns reflect the skills required, and possessed, by the workforce. Lifelong learning can promote flexibility in the supply of labour by creating opportunities for skills upgrading, retraining of workers and the continuous development of knowledge. The promotion of a healthy labour market needs to ensure that:

(i) every individual has the information, opportunity and skills necessary to participate in the labour market;

(ii) the whole workforce is encouraged to learn and develop, thereby improving its productivity and employability; and

(iii) employers are able to recruit skilled workers, and are satisfied with the skills of their employees.

The policy environment

EU and beyond

This strategy recognises the influence of EU and OECD thinking on lifelong learning. The recent European Memorandum on Lifelong Learning called for the establishment of a pan-European area of lifelong learning within which there should be freedom of movement for citizens to travel between learning settings to mirror the freedoms of movement between jobs that exist in the European system. The aim is to enable EU citizens to make the most of their knowledge and competencies.

Clearly we have much to share with other European countries, but we also have much to learn from them. In an increasingly open European Union, mutual recognition of qualifications is important for the free movement of people. Through UK Government representation in Brussels and the Scottish Executive's EU office, we have been able to promote Scottish lifelong learning developments, such as the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF), within Europe. We have developed bilateral relationships with other European countries where that brings opportunities to learn from each other. In May 2002, we signed a Co-operation Agreement with Catalonia, Baden Württemburg, Rhône-Alpes and Lombardy which sees us continuing the promotion of the mobility of students, through the participation of Scotland in the multi-regional International Business Programme (MIBP).

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) also plays a distinctive role in promoting lifelong learning through its work on policy development and evaluation. In particular, it produces international comparative studies allowing Scotland to measure where it stands in the global lifelong learning league. We describe how Scotland matches up to some of the OECD comparators in the section on how well the current system performs.

United Kingdom

Scotland's lifelong learning strategy has also been developed in the context of the wider UK framework of macro-economic, social and employment policy (which are all reserved to the UK Government) . We work in partnership with the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI), and maintain regular contacts with the other devolved administrations so that we can draw on and share best practice from across the whole of the UK in developing our own policies and ensure that we manage any cross-border issues effectively.

Jobcentre Plus is a major player in the whole field of job-related training. Similarly, the UK-wide network of Sector Skills Councils support the development of the National Occupational Standards which underpin both Scottish and National Vocational Qualifications (S/NVQs) in the UK.

The UK Government's Welfare to Work policies support learning in a number of respects, notably the full-time education or training option for New Deal 18-24 participants, and financial support for training undertaken by New Deal for Lone Parents and New Deal 25+ participants.

Scotland

The Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee's Inquiry into Lifelong Learning, the roll-out of the SCQF, the publication of 'Educating for Excellence', the Executive's response to the National Debate on Education, the conclusion of the Review into Enterprise in Education and the legislative underpinning of Community Planning are important components in the development of this strategy. These, together with other recent developments, are illustrated in the timeline on these pages. They pave the way for many of the actions outlined in this strategy.

Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee's Inquiry into Lifelong learning

When the Scottish Parliament's Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee announced its intention to hold an Inquiry into lifelong learning in 2001, the Executive welcomed this development.

The Committee's remit was "to inquire into the need for a long-term, comprehensive strategy for continuing post-compulsory education and training in Scotland which meets the needs and aspirations of individuals and society as a whole in respect of quality, relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, accessibility, accountability, funding levels and structures and delivery mechanisms". The Executive agreed to refrain from developing the strategy until the Committee completed its Inquiry.

We have identified 3 key issues from the Committee's inquiry:

• The knowledge economy - the increasing pace of technological change, which demands a flexible and adaptable workforce that is ready to reskill and retrain to keep pace with the economy's skills needs.
• Demography - Scotland's changing population and fewer young people entering the workforce in the future, with the consequent need for increased workforce development.
• Social Justice and citizenship - the importance of learning in providing a route out of poverty and helping to narrow the gap between rich and poor in society - and enabling people of Scotland to participate actively in society.

The Committee produced their final report on 28 October 2002. It was both comprehensive and detailed, containing around 80 recommendations. The first of these was that the Executive should develop a strategy for lifelong learning. This is what we have done. We have also produced a detailed response to the Committee's report at the same time as publishing this strategy.

National Debate on Education

The recent National Debate on Education showed that people want a school system that is more flexible and able to meet the needs of the individual child. They want choices so that all children and young people have the same opportunities and are able to participate more fully in society. The Executive's response to the Debate, 'Educating for Excellence', sets out the next steps towards achieving a vision based on the responses received. This includes making sure that all schools in Scotland play a full part in lifelong learning by breaking down the barriers that get in the way of working more flexibly. Both 'Educating for Excellence' and this strategy encourage the development of locally relevant links between schools, further education, higher education institutions and employers to ease young people's transitions through school education and into training, further and higher education or employment.

This will be further supported by the proposals for change in the draft Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Bill that is currently undergoing consultation. The context for the Bill is set out in the framework document 'Moving Forward! Additional Support for Learning' (January 2003). One of the aims of the proposed Bill is to strengthen transition support arrangements for young people with additional support needs to make the move from school a positive experience and to pave the way for a continuation of support for their learning.

Review of Enterprise in Education

The recent Review of Enterprise in Education, 'Determined to Succeed' recognised that work-based learning in schools is a key means of developing vocational skills and enterprising behaviour. It can also help provide a more varied school experience focused on the needs and interests of each individual young person. The Review Group concluded that there should be a step change in the volume of work-based vocational learning and opportunities for enterprise and called for a major commitment from Scotland's businesses and educationalists to make this a reality. The Executive shares this view and will be working with the other stakeholders to deliver a significantly expanded programme of work-based learning and enterprise.

Higher Education Review

The remit of the HE Review was to "identify how the Scottish Executive Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department's investment in the delivery of HE can most effectively maximise the personal, social and economic benefits of teaching and research over the medium to longer term, and support a culture of challenge, innovation and partnership in and beyond higher education institutions". The outcome of this review will be published shortly and will reinforce key messages in relation to the lifelong learning agenda:

• Flexibility and relevance in the development and delivery of provision;
• Greater collaboration within and across sectors; and
• Diversity within a coherent strategic framework.

Underpinning these messages is the need to focus on the changing requirements of learners, to be responsive to the demands of employers, to recognise achievement, to provide information on - and improve - route-ways for progression and to maintain quality.

Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF)

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) seeks to bring together Scottish qualifications into a single unified framework. It aims to allocate credit to all assessed and quality assured learning; signpost people of all ages and circumstances to appropriate education and training over their lifetime; and help employers, learners and the general public understand how qualifications can improve the knowledge and skills of Scotland's workforce.

We have committed an additional investment of 1.5m over 3 years to support the more rapid implementation of the Framework. The SCQF website, launched in January 2003, and a national communication strategy, will provide more accessible information about the SCQF to all potential users.

By 2004-05, most of the main Scottish qualifications will be within the SCQF, allowing Scotland to have a single, unified, integrated framework encompassing a wide range of education and training provision.

Community Planning Partnerships

Community planning is about effective joint working between public, private, voluntary and community bodies, all with a view to improving the delivery of public services, including education and learning. It acts as an umbrella framework, within which other local plans should be co-ordinated.

Community planning will shortly receive a statutory underpinning by virtue of the Local Government in Scotland Act, which is currently being considered by Parliament and is due to receive Royal Assent around the end of February 2003.

Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) are now well established in each of Scotland's thirty-two local authority areas. We are issuing Guidance to CPPs on community learning and development, which specifically highlights national priorities in relation to community-based provision for disadvantaged adults.

Equal opportunities

The Executive is committed to securing equal opportunities for all and eliminating discrimination and prejudice in our society. Uneven access to lifelong learning can entrench inequality. We are promoting the mainstreaming of equality in the development of policy and the shaping of legislation. Our approach to lifelong learning is no exception in this regard.

There is also a clear trend towards legislating for equality of opportunity. Laws against discrimination on the grounds of sex, disability and race are already in place and there is a commitment to transpose European employment directives into UK law that will impact on discrimination in the workplace on the basis of age, religion and sexual orientation.

The most recent examples of domestic legislation include the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001, amending the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. Both require public organisations to review their provision of services, including learner provision, to ensure that is it appropriate to the needs of individuals with a disability and those from minority ethnic groups respectively. The Executive and its agencies are working with learning providers to ensure that they have the capacity to adapt their policies, approach and facilities to meet such requirements.

Sustainable development

Wider participation in lifelong learning can be expected to enable people to become more aware and knowledgeable about environmental issues and the ways in which they might lead a more sustainable lifestyle. In 'Meeting the Needs....Priorities, Actions and Targets for sustainable development in Scotland' published in April 2002, the Scottish Executive set out the national vision for sustainable development. Increased levels of knowledge and skills are the means of developing innovative solutions to the problems of sustainable development. In particular, this strategy is relevant to the Executive's sustainable development indicator on people as a resource in the workplace.

The current funding system

The Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department's investment in lifelong learning is significant. The bulk of our investment is directed towards funding institutions (principally FE colleges and HEIs) to provide learning. We also support learners to undertake learning opportunities and fund other special schemes and programmes such as the Enterprise Networks' learning and skills programmes for work-based learning and workforce development. These streams of spend are, of course, linked because the way an institution is resourced has a direct bearing on the number and kind of publicly-funded learning opportunities it can provide. The Enterprise Networks' expenditure on skills training and workforce development is largely paid to institutions (employers and training providers), although the funding mostly follows the needs of individuals.

Funding institutions

The bulk of the Executive's expenditure goes towards funding institutions.

The funding of learning in FE colleges has recently been a priority, with funding levels by the end of the current Parliament in April 2003 having increased by more than 50% over the 1998 baseline. The 2002 Spending Review announced a further 20% cash increase over the three years of the spending period to 2005-06, bringing the Executive's investment into the FE sector (including FE bursary support) to over 0.5billion for the first time. This has resulted in rising enrolments to study for further and higher qualifications in colleges, as illustrated in the table below.

Table 5

The higher education sector has benefited from a 15% cash increase in the Spending Review 2002 settlement - a significant proportion of which is earmarked to boost science and research. This builds on an increase of similar magnitude in the last Spending Review to address the under-funded expansion in the sector during the last two decades. The purpose of the new level of additional support is to support and strengthen the infrastructure and quality of provision rather than to expand capacity.

There are historical differences in the way that further and higher education have been funded, reflecting historic differences in the costs of the capital infrastructure and human resource. Seeking to make comparisons in, say, unit costs is complex and difficult. Greater transparency is desirable, and the creation of a single executive for SHEFC and SFEFC has been a major step in this direction. Further progress in this direction will be pursued.

The third main sector of publicly-funded learning is community learning and development. The total spend here is more difficult to estimate due to the diverse range of public and voluntary sector providers. The grant-aided expenditure (GAE) provided to local authorities for the provision of community learning and development currently stands at over 100m per annum However, the recording of this is inconsistent across authorities, as is the definition of what can be attributed to community learning and development. In addition there is the contribution of the voluntary sector and other community learning partners to take into consideration. In addition over 40m will have been invested in Community Learning Partnerships for adult literacy and numeracy programmes by 2006.

Supporting learners

The Executive's lifelong learning programmes cater for a very wide range of learners. The customer base for the support of individual learners includes the traditional groups of young adults who leave school and enter higher or further education as well as others in tertiary education such as postgraduates or mature students, either full-time or part-time. It also supports those who historically have participated less in post-16 non-compulsory learning, e.g.:

• young people whose continued formal education might be limited by family budget constraints;
• experienced adults whose skills have become out of date;
• those who want to refresh their skills or change career;
• those whose commitments to childcare or other caring responsibilities have prevented them from taking up learning opportunities; and
• people with particular educational support needs, including those resulting from disabilities.

The diagram below highlights this by showing the lower rates of participation in school or further education amongst young people from low-income households

Graph 6 Participation in school and full-time FE Education, 16-19 year olds

Source: GRO, SEED, Family Resources Survey 2001

Young people who have left school, but have not gone on to further or higher education, employment or training, may have become disaffected with school and have no, or limited, qualifications. There may also be family disadvantage and poverty.

There are other barriers to learning - disability, mental health problems, caring responsibilities and access difficulties experienced by those living in rural and remote areas - which limit uptake of learning when experienced singly, but when combined with some of the other issues detailed here, makes learning less likely.

The diverse range of backgrounds has implications for the type of funding arrangements that it is appropriate to provide. In part, these arrangements relate to the circumstances of the individual (family income level, childcare responsibilities, etc.) and the nature of the learning that is being undertaken. Our current policies on support for learners seek to widen access to learning for people from a variety of backgrounds, targeting provision for those with greatest needs and for those who view themselves on the periphery of society.

There have been a number of recent changes to the arrangements for supporting learners, most notably a major reform of HE student support. We have also taken measures to bring FE and HE student support into closer alignment. Improvements to the FE student support system, including alignment of income thresholds in FE and HE, were announced in March 2001. We recognise that there are continuing anomalies and perceived inequities, and we are working to identify and resolve these.

We also work closely with the DWP and Jobcentre Plus in supporting the UK Government's Welfare to Work policies, notably the full-time education or training option for New Deal 18-24 participants, and financial support for training undertaken by New Deal for Lone Parents and New Deal 25+ participants.

How well does the current lifelong learning system perform?

One way to measure how this investment benefits Scotland's society and economy is to compare our performance in lifelong learning with other parts of the UK and with other countries. This shows that we have much to be proud of, most notably in terms of participation in HE, 28% of which takes place in FE colleges.

• The demand for higher education is strong. Figures published in 2002 show that 50% ⁹ of young people undertake some form of higher education by the time they are 21. The great majority of these courses are vocational in nature.
• Over a quarter of people undertaking higher education are in 1 or 2 year sub-degree programmes with a vocational focus.
• For first-degrees, our graduation rates are above that of all the OECD countries for which data is available. In 1999/00, Scotland had a graduation rate of 39.2% compared to UK rate of 37.5%, and an OECD average of 25.9%.

Graph 7 Graduation rates from higher education first degrees, 1999/00

Source: OECD and SEELLD

• In terms of the overall qualification levels within the adult population, Scotland performs slightly better than the OECD average. 66% of 25-64 year olds had attained at least an upper secondary qualification (SCQF level 5 ¹⁰) in 2001, compared to an average figure of 64% for the OECD, and 63% for the UK.
• Within the younger age groups, Scotland is also highly placed in international terms on core skills amongst 15 year olds. Results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2000 ¹¹ showed that we rank highly among OECD countries in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy.
• We can be particularly proud of the excellence in scholarship and science that exists within our higher education institutions.
• We can also be proud of the fact that employers report generally high levels of satisfaction with labour quality.
• Around 44,000 people have received training as Modern Apprentices to date, and 16,500 have completed their training.

However, there is no room for complacency:

• The proportion of 15-19 year olds not in employment, education or training in Scotland in 2001 was 11.8%, well above the OECD average of 8.6%. Scotland also has a significantly lower proportion of this age group in education - only 71% compared to 80% for the OECD as a whole.
• While we perform reasonably well in terms of qualification achievement at SCQF level 5 for 25-64 year olds, Scotland still lags behind countries such as Sweden (81%), Japan (83%) and Norway (85%).

Graph 8 Percentage of population aged 25-64 that has attained at least upper secondary/higher education, 2001

Source: OECD and UK LFS

• Adult basic numeracy and literacy remains a concern with some 23% of adults (800,000 people) estimated to have low levels of literacy and numeracy skills in Scotland.
• Over 660,000 (29%) people in employment received job-related training during the first quarter of 2002 ¹². Whilst this is up from 540,000 (24%) in 1997 - and is on a par with figures for the UK as a whole - more needs to be done here if we are serious about building sustainable economic growth.

This strategy seeks both to build on the momentum of the positive achievements described above and to close the gaps where we compare unfavourably with other countries.