Scottish Government

The Lifelong Learning Strategy for Scotland

3 Our vision for Lifelong Learning in Scotland:

Five goals:

There are 5 people-centred goals that will realise the vision

• A Scotland where people have the confidence, enterprise, knowledge, creativity and skills they need to participate in economic, social and civic life
• A Scotland where people demand and providers deliver a high quality learning experience
• A Scotland where people's knowledge and skills are recognised, used and developed to best effect in their workplace
• A Scotland where people are given the information, guidance and support they need to make effective learning decisions and transitions
• A Scotland where people have the chance to learn, irrespective of their background or current personal circumstances

How we plan to use our financial resources

Decisions about the balance of funding and other resources are never easy. Our strategy prioritises actions and stems from a realistic view of what is achievable. It seeks to set the parameters within which we, and the key interest groups with a stake in lifelong learning, will determine the use of those resources.

In the Spending Review 2002, the Executive set out its spending plans for the three years from 2003-04 to 2005-06. The review process ensures that resources are allocated in line with the Executive's priorities of securing long-term economic growth and increasing opportunities for all. Closing the opportunity gap, to ensure that we live in a society founded on fairness, equality and opportunity, was an overarching theme.

In Lifelong Learning, spending has been focused on objectives that are aimed at improving skills, enterprise, employability, widening access and ensuring high quality provision.

We aim to improve the skills base, employability and enterprise of the people of Scotland by

• allocating additional funds to increase the total number of Modern Apprenticeships (MAs), and the numbers of those undertaking training in employment;
• improving adult literacy and numeracy skills of 70,000 adults by 2006, in addition to the 80,000 adults we are currently helping; and
• building on the Enterprise in Education report, 'Determined to Succeed' in developing activities to enable young people in schools to learn and have experience of business enterprise.

We have asked the Enterprise Networks to strengthen Scotland's skills base, and to ensure that Futureskills Scotland and Careers Scotland play an increasingly active role in developing knowledge and understanding of the requirements of the labour market.

We see a continuing role for learndirect scotland in promoting learning and brokering new learning opportunities to meet current gaps and new demands.

We aim to widen access to further and higher education by

• assisting up to half a million people of all ages in their studies at an FE college
• maintaining the expanded number of funded places in HEIs available and the funding to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to support disadvantaged, non-traditional students
• introducing Education Maintenance Allowances (EMAs) across Scotland

We have issued guidance to both SHEFC and SFEFC, asking them to continue to facilitate strong links between schools, FE colleges and HEIs, building on the initial work of the Councils' Wider Access Regional Forums. The guidance to both Councils also welcomes developments in articulation, highlighting the role of the SCQF as a means to build on Scotland's strong and internationally envied record of successfully providing higher education courses at sub-degree level in FE colleges.

We are also aiming to provide a better learning and teaching environment for staff and students at FE colleges and Higher Education Institutions in Scotland.

Spending on lifelong learning will total over 1.7 billion in 2003-04. That is set to rise under our current spending plans to over 1.9 billion for 2005-06. Of the total spending over these three years:

• some 70% (1,254m in 2003-04 rising to 1408m in 2005-06) is allocated to supporting institutions and bodies to provide learning
• some 18% (314m in 2003-04 to 354m in 2005-06) to supporting individual learners
• some 12% (209m in 2003-04 rising to 233m in 2005-06) to programmes and schemes such as Modern Apprenticeships, Enterprise in Education, the Scottish Union Learning Fund, etc.

These streams of spending are, of course, linked because the way an institution is resourced has a direct bearing on the number and kind of publicly-funded opportunities it can provide.

Pie Chart 9 Spending Proposals for Learning & Training 2003/4 - 2005/6 (total spend in bn for the three years)

"gaining the confidence and interest of the most excluded groups is time-consuming, but an essential part of creating a level playing field for those learners."
ELLC evidence, Workers' Educational Association (WEA)

goal 1
A Scotland where people have the confidence, enterprise, knowledge, creativity and skills they need to participate in economic, social and civic life.

We want a system which ensures the best possible match between the learning and skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviours needed for a more productive economy and a more inclusive society, and the opportunities for individuals. To do this, we need to put special effort into closing the gaps:

• The gap in participation in learning between those in low skilled jobs and those in high skill jobs
• The gap between the skills of those in work and the skills of those who are not

These gaps start to develop when young people leave school. Some 6% of our young people leave school without any qualifications at SCQF level 3 ¹³. The Labour Force Survey indicates that around 14% of 16-19 year olds are not in employment, education, or training, and this proportion has not fallen as the labour market has got stronger.

The OECD has suggested that training to SCQF level 5 (SVQ2) is the minimum required for work and life, in order to minimise the risk of social exclusion. The current situation in Scotland shows that the proportion of adults aged 25-59/64 who have qualifications below SCQF level 5 has been falling, and decreased from 33% in 1997 to 28% in 2002. However, the gap in qualifications between those employed and those out of work remains significant, as can be seen from the graph overleaf.

Graph 10 Qualifications by economic activity in Scotland, aged 25-59/64

Source: Labour Force Survey

The chart clearly highlights that improving the skills of people who are not working is vital - 35% of those not in work do not have any qualifications, while 47% have qualifications below SCQF level 5. There is now an increased emphasis on basic skills provision in Welfare to Work policies and they have had a positive impact - on youth and long-term unemployment in particular. However, we cannot rely on the Welfare to Work policies alone. The Executive has a role to play here too.

For example, we know that developing learning, skills and employability is critical to helping prisoners adopt a more purposeful lifestyle on release. The Executive invests 2.5m per annum on education provision within prisons through the Scottish Prison Service, to help prisoners gain qualifications relevant to labour market conditions.

We want all Scotland's people to have the opportunity to reach a minimum level of learning for work and life. To do this, we are setting a target of SCQF level 5 for working age adults and a target of SCQF level 6 for people aged 18 to 29.

There is much to do. As we identified in the section on the socio-economic context for this strategy, tackling the barriers to participation in learning is one of the main 'demand-side' interventions we can make in the learning market. Scotland has relatively high participation in learning but participation in learning is uneven: people who are not working, those using lower levels of skill at work, and workers on temporary contracts receive less training ¹⁴. While 86% of non-manual workers had done some learning in the last 3 years, this figure was 70% for skilled manual workers, and 53% for unskilled workers.

For people who have not participated in learning, motivation is a key barrier: the majority of people who have not done any learning in the last three years say they have no intention to return to learning. As we describe earlier, learners are not homogenous and motivations for learning differ for different groups of learners. For one person, the motivation to take up learning or to return to learning may be related to a personal interest or hobby, whilst for another there may be strong career or job prospect motivations ¹⁵. We know that, as well as learners themselves, influences on participation come from friends and relatives, particularly for young people, and employers ¹⁶. These are complicated factors. We have work to do to improve our understanding of the ways that motivation to learn and barriers to participation figure in learners' lives ¹⁷.

An important aspect in attracting people into learning is making learning more accessible. We need to make learning available in new and interesting ways. There are challenges here for providers. One such area of challenge is posed by e-learning. It offers the potential of bringing learning to potential learners wherever they are. It offers the potential of changing in some ways the relationship between learning providers and learners. It is able to package learning in new ways e.g. by combining games technology and learning. It can be blended with other forms of learning to ensure that learners have a comprehensive experience in learning in a way that suits them. E-learning can build on the way in which more and more people are making use of the internet as a place to shop, communicate and find information.

E-delivery is in itself only a tool which can be used to make learning more flexible, convenient and accessible. Providers must work to ensure that packages are designed using high-quality materials and with appropriate attention to the principles of good teaching. This will ensure that individuals have an effective learning experience and are able to measure their progress in relation to learning outcomes and apply what they have learned. Providers should also ensure that appropriate support mechanisms are available both on- and off-line to support the learning process and range of preferred learning styles. The opportunity to learn through assistive technology has significant potential in supporting students with disabilities and learning difficulties. While there has been a lot of hype about e-learning, the reality is that few people have any experience of it. If we are to make learning accessible in new ways then it has to be learning that is attractive and of good quality so that people want to learn more.

We said that the gaps in learning attainment are starting with our school leavers. We believe that we can make significant progress in closing these gaps by improving young people's understanding of the options open to them when they leave school and encouraging more young people into further learning.

Increasing work-based vocational learning in schools

The Enterprise in Education Report, 'Determined to Succeed', includes a recommendation that all pupils and students over the age of 14 should have the opportunity for work-based vocational learning and enterprise experience. The report recognises this will require a major commitment from Scotland's employers working with our schools. It will be important to ensure that any opportunities that young people take up are of a high quality, otherwise the work experience could be a negative one. The Executive is determined to produce the scale of change necessary if we are to reflect the importance the Review Group attaches to this issue. We will work hard to ensure the significant funding available is used to build on and develop existing programmes to ensure that our young people have an understanding of the world of work, and are both prepared for it and positive about the opportunities it offers. We describe this further under Goal 4.

Engaging more young people in further learning

We want to engage a much higher proportion of young people in learning beyond age 16. This aspiration is reflected in the National Priorities for Education, in 'Smart Successful Scotland' and in the strategic priorities set for Careers Scotland around reducing the proportion of 16-19 year olds not in employment, education or training. Barriers for these young people are partly financial, partly motivational, and partly to do with the availability and appeal of pathways through learning and the provision of support for those who need it. The roll-out of Educational Maintenance Allowances will support more young people to stay on at school beyond 16. Our action to re-engineer Skillseekers, and encouraging flexible funding for collaboration between schools, colleges, HEIs, the Enterprise Networks and employers under goals 3 and 4 will also help to tackle these barriers. There is an important role here for community learning and development providers who are responsible for informal education and youth work with young people.

The National Priorities for Education include the commitment "to work with parents to teach pupils respect for self and one another and their interdependence with other members of their neighbourhood and society and to teach them the duties and responsibilities of citizenship in a democratic society".

Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) are now considering the most effective means of taking forward the Education for Citizenship in Scotland report's recommendations, following Ministers endorsement. Recent work by LTS and Community Learning Scotland on extending the 'education for citizenship' agenda beyond school and by Community Learning Partnerships, is starting to make an impact. Formal and informal lifelong learning providers have a developing role to play in this area.

Encouraging community-based learning

Community learning and development is the third strand of our work on raising participation in learning. Informal and community-based learning plays a crucial role in supporting people to engage in or to return to learning and can often be a first step back into more formal further or higher education for people who have become disengaged from learning. Community centres and local libraries play an important role in supporting learning in less institutionalised settings, through the use of informal education approaches to addressing people's interests and concerns. We will support Community Learning and Development Partnerships, which bring together local authorities, FE, HE, the voluntary sector and others, linking learning to community regeneration in Scotland's Social Inclusion Partnerships (SIPs) and elsewhere. National priorities in this area include raising the standards of achievement in learning for disadvantaged adults, especially in the core skills of literacy and numeracy, ICT and other learning related to work and life. Partnerships are required to address the needs of both geographic and interest communities, such as people with disabilities, ethnic or language minorities, together with supporting those who are retired. Guidance has been issued to the Partnerships to link learning to personal and social development.

To realise this, we will:

	1. launch a new scheme of Individual Learning Accounts during year 2003/04 to widen participation in adult learning by increasing interest and wider uptake and encourage individuals to take ownership of their learning by investing in it. We will, in particular, use the new scheme to support those on low incomes and to encourage wider uptake of ICT courses. In developing the successor scheme, we will take full account of the lessons learned from the first ILA scheme.
	2. fund a campaign - Give it a Go! Learning Tasters - to engage 5,000 new learners in March and April 2003. We shall use learndirect scotland learning centres to give new learners a free taste of learning and encourage them into lifelong learning.
	3.issue guidance on community learning and development to all Community Planning Partnerships, local authorities, FE, HE and voluntary sector providers. This will highlight national priorities, together with outcome targets, for work with disadvantaged adults and young people, and will support collaborative work between partner agencies at strategic and local levels, building upon the work of Community Learning Strategies since 2000.
	4.complete an in-house review of research on reasons for (re-)engaging with learning and sustaining learning careers by April 2003 and conduct research on links between learning and citizenship, with a view to future development of initiatives targeted at disaffected or non-participating individuals.
	5.seek to ensure that public sector investment in e-learning is co-ordinated and takes account of complementary actions by convening on a regular basis an E-learning Public Sector Group.
	6.introduce Education Maintenance Allowances across Scotland. By 2008, the roll-out of EMAs aims to support about 40,000 young people to stay in education at school or college for longer than they might otherwise have done. This will be targeted at pupils who need it and will benefit from it the most.
	We will also continue to:
	7.raise the numeracy and literacy skills in 150,000 adults by 2006.
	8.increase the provision of Public Internet Access Points (PIAPs) in learndirect scotland branded learning centres. There are about 390 learndirect scotland branded learning centres throughout Scotland, 196 of which are in areas of social exclusion. Our focus will be on providing public internet access in a) learndirect scotland centres in areas suffering from social exclusion or the effects of isolation, and in addition b) those learndirect scotland centres that show real potential for creating synergy between the provision of internet access and the provision of learning opportunities."
	9.implement the relevant recommendations of the Scottish Refugee Integration Forum with regard to the creation of learning opportunities for refugees and asylum seekers.
	10.look at the options for mainstreaming the New Futures Fund (NFF) initiative after March 2005 which might include developing alternative arrangements for existing projects and ensuring that learning from Phases 1 and 2 of NFF influences other mainstream programmes.
	11.gather better data on the resources used to provide community learning and development activities and the levels of participation in these activities. Work has already started on this task, and recommendations are due in May 2003. Ahead of that, in April 2003 we will commence a National Development Project which will seek to support Community Learning and Development Partnerships to gather management information of this kind.
	12.provide a framework for prisoners to develop skills and lead more productive lifestyles independent of crime post-release in our Learning, Skills and Employability strategy for the Scottish Prison Service, due to be launched in Spring 2003.

goal 2
A Scotland where people demand and providers deliver a high quality learning experience

Quality matters. Individuals, employers and government invest time, money and effort in learning and training. Where quality is poor, they are less likely to make or continue their investment.

It is our aim to ensure that all lifelong learning provision in Scotland competes with the best in the rest of the world in quality terms. Our assumption is that excellence in our lifelong learning provision will encourage more individuals to participate in learning throughout their lives and ensure value for money in publicly-funded provision.

The quality of lifelong learning opportunities in Scotland is currently assured through various, mostly external, regimes which vary in their focus on the assessment of delivery mechanisms, the quality and improvement of the experience, and outcomes for learners. Partly because each of these regimes has been designed specifically to meet the needs of, and in consultation with, the relevant sector, they are inconsistent with each other and there are both overlaps and gaps in their areas of coverage.

"there is considerable scope for harmonising many aspects of the existing QA systems. ...however, the different kinds of learning do indeed have different purposes, aspects and features which quality assurance systems must address and reflect"
ELLC evidence, Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education

Currently:

• the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) has its own system for the quality assurance of Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQs), National Qualifications (NQs) and Higher National awards (HNCs and HNDs);
• the Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC) contracts with Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) for a range of quality assurance and improvement functions including a four-year cycle of reviews of FE colleges in respect of key cross-college functions related to the learner experience, and for a sample of subject areas and outcomes in each college;
• The Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) has a statutory duty to make arrangements to assess the quality of education it funds. HEIs are quality assured through a new system developed by a group of SHEFC, the sector, student representatives and the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), closely linked to that used for HEIs in the rest of the UK.
• Scottish Enterprise (SEn) and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) use the Scottish Quality Management System (SQMS) to quality assure private training providers and government-funded training provision in FE colleges used by LECs;
• local authority community learning and development provision is inspected by HMIE with reference to the "How good is our community learning and development?" quality framework; and
• HEIs are quality assured through a new system developed by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), closely linked to that used for HEIs in the rest of the UK.

These current quality assessment arrangements in lifelong learning in Scotland have been variously criticised for over-auditing and in some cases for being insufficiently rigorous or 'fit for purpose'.

Quality Assurance (QA) in the HE sector has just been subject to review and consultation with stakeholders and a new approach is being introduced from this year. The new quality regime has a clear focus on quality enhancement, with institutions expected to demonstrate that they have clear, well-managed strategies for promoting constant quality improvement across all aspects of learning and teaching. The Executive expects SHEFC to monitor closely the implementation of this new system, to ensure that it delivers real benefits to students, reduces low value-added bureaucracy and continues to provide a sufficient level of accountability.

Consequently, we are not planning to make changes to QA in the HE sector. Indeed, we will ensure that, wherever appropriate, good practice and standards used in the HE and all other sectors will be drawn on in the development of new approaches for quality assuring the rest of lifelong learning.

Good leadership and management are key to ensuring quality. The ongoing development of leadership and management training and support for managers at all levels within these organisations, and for those on governing bodies of FE and HE institutions will be a critical element in improving quality, as is strong governance and accountability. All organisations involved in the provision of learning opportunities must be supported to develop their quality cultures and relevant strategies, to ensure that they focus on all aspects of quality management.

No less important is the initial training and continuing professional development of those whose primary responsibility is the development and delivery of learning, whatever the learning provider. The ability of professionals to learn from each other's experience drives improvements in approaches, which is why, for example, the recent Community Education Training Review recommends that there is more joint training between community-based and institution-based adult educators. Collaboration involving the new Sector Skills Councils, the relevant professional bodies and training providers will be an essential component in achieving and maintaining world-class quality standards.

FE colleges and their lecturers play a key role in the provision of a qualified workforce committed to the achievement of quality in design, development and delivery of products and services. The quality of the education and training that is provided in FE colleges depends crucially on the skills, knowledge and understanding of lecturers. If lecturers are to maintain a high level of performance, they must continue to develop and update both vocational and teaching skills. The Executive strongly supports the FE Professional Development Forum and its application of occupational standards. The Executive does so by approving and monitoring provision of higher education courses leading to the Teaching Qualification (Further Education) and by endorsing SFEFC's setting of targets, supported by funding, for full-time and part-time staff undertaking formal training.

Community learning and development practitioners are a key part of the overall workforce supporting lifelong learning in the community. There are some 3000 graduate practitioners in this field working across public and voluntary agencies, together with an extensive part-time and volunteer workforce. We have been working closely with PAULO, the former National Training Organisation for community-based learning and through the Community Education Validation and Endorsement Committee, to raise standards of training at all levels. In 2002 we issued for consultation the report of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Community Education Training and in February we published our policy on the future of professional community learning and development training.

There has already been some good work done in ensuring greater coherence between separate systems. A Convergence Group was established in March 2000 comprising representatives from SFEFC and the Enterprise Networks. It has been making good progress in establishing correlations between SQMS Standards and the SFEFC/HMIE's quality framework, confirming commonality between the two. FE colleges that achieve a satisfactory review report from HMIE already receive credit transfer for seven of the ten SQMS standards. The consequent reduction in SQMS activity in these colleges represents a considerable reduction in their overall audit burden.

If we are to stimulate demand for good quality learning and training, the time is right for a move to a quality improvement culture in which all quality assessment is based upon an all-round, learner-centred quality improvement approach. All providers of learning and training need to carry out their own internal assessments of quality. External quality assessment needs to become more flexible through a move to a proportionate system where the amount and nature of external assessment is determined by evidence on the quality of the provider and the provision, the effectiveness of internal quality assessment and improvement mechanisms and the outcomes. The focus needs to move further towards measuring outcomes, for learners and all other stakeholders, and to developing quality assessment that promotes real improvement in learners' experience and outcomes. In considering the success of outcomes for individuals, factors such as the content and nature of the learning, their personal and skills development and how that learning has contributed to their employment or other opportunities need to be taken into account, as well as the qualifications achieved.

We believe that quality assurance frameworks should:

• focus on outcomes and the key processes that impact on the quality of the learners' experience, including the factors that promote or hinder access;
• be as consistent as possible across sectors and providers in principle and approach; and
• be regularly reviewed;

and that quality mechanisms should:

• drive innovation in quality improvement;
• include learner evaluations;
• avoid duplication of external assessments and processes;
• assess risk and be applied proportionately;
• use partnership approaches and benchmarking to raise standards;
• be clear and easy for stakeholders to operate;
• offer value for money;
• be transparent, inspiring public confidence;
• provide relevant information to customers and stakeholders;
• be used by all key stakeholders; and
• have an appropriate balance between internal and external dimensions of quality assurance and quality improvement.

In summary, our goal is to develop a quality framework for post-compulsory education and training (both public and private provision) which is 'fit for purpose', owned at the point of delivery, does not overburden learning providers with audit requirements, considers results (outcomes and outputs), as well as inputs and processes that impact on the quality of the learners' experience. It should encourage organisational development, openness and accountability and improve quality across the board.

To realise this we will:

	1.commission a study, reporting by early 2004, on the current quality assurance landscape in Scotland, drawing on other countries' approaches to enhancing the quality of the learning experience. It will look at quality assurance arrangements for other educational sectors that collaborate on lifelong learning provision, including schools and the higher education sector, and the options for involving all providers in developing a new Scottish approach. The study will also provide options for the future development of the approach and widening its coverage. In doing so, it will take account of the respective needs of both the learner and the learning provider, as well as of current and future resource requirements. New arrangements consequent on the findings of the study would be phased in as resources permit and on timescales to harmonise with pre-existing cycles of quality assurance activity.
	2. ask the Enterprise Networks to develop the work that they are currently undertaking to reduce the audit burden on the learning providers in their training programmes, with a view to establishing, wherever possible, a single audit of a training provider.
	3. publish the outcomes of the review of governance and accountability of FE colleges and develop an action plan to tackle the issues identified with SFEFC and colleges.
	We will also continue to:
	4. update and, where necessary, expand the range and level of competencies provided for in the 'National Guidelines on Provision Leading to the Teaching Qualification (Further Education) and Related Professional Development'. The Minister has also announced a wide-ranging review which as well as covering the competencies required by FE lecturers will look at other structural and operational matters. The review will include a consultation exercise that is intended to give the sector and other interested parties an opportunity to put forward their views on how best to improve and update the skills of lecturing staff. The consultation process will begin in March.
	5. improve data collection and analysis in consultation with relevant stakeholders.

"too much of it [employer training] is likely to be unfocused or of poor quality, and therefore of little value either to the organisation or the individual."
ELLC evidence, CBI Scotland

goal 3
A Scotland where people's knowledge and skills are recognised, used and developed to best effect in their workplace

We need to ensure that there are learning opportunities that respond to the needs of society and the economy. We want to encourage all types of organisations - private, public and voluntary - to train people in their workforce, helping everyone to see the benefits.

We know that Scotland has a higher level of skills in its workforce than England but lower productivity than the UK average ¹⁷. In this light, it is interesting to note that organisations reporting skill problems in the recent Futureskills Scotland skills survey were more likely than the average to have been growing and to provide training for their staff ¹⁸. That raises the possibility of extensive latent skill deficiencies, where employers do not recognise that more investment in, or better use of the skills of, their workforce could yield improvements in performance. For example, of the 800,000 adults in Scotland who are estimated to have low levels of literacy and numeracy, 650,000 are of working age with 520,000 of these in employment. This is a major barrier for the individual and the employer.

Employers tend to invest more in higher level skills ¹⁹ where the returns to the employer are generally greater, both in terms of productivity ²⁰, and employment growth ²¹. They are also likely to target training on job-specific skills needed by workers to do their current job, which will generally offer a more immediate return. Not all firms have the same motivation or ability to be involved in training. For example, large firms of over 250 people generally have well-established human resource and training departments, whereas small firms of less than 50 people tend to rely more on informal training. Government across the UK is establishing a new network of employer-led Sector Skills Councils to replace the former National Training Organisations. These new bodies will play a leading role in articulating employer demand for skills and bring influence to bear to facilitate relevant provision of training by learning providers for example, through their development of National Occupational Standards, which underpin the SVQs and NVQs.

Recent evidence ²² suggests that in spite of the amount of money spent on training in the UK, very few organisations take a strategic approach to training. While 60% of businesses have business plans, only 39% have training plans, indicating the limited extent to which training and skills issues are integrated into the business planning process. We offer the model of the 'learning organisation' as a helpful concept for organisations wishing to build developmental and learning activities into their everyday operations.

In a learning organisation, "instead of training and skills being a bolt-on extra, learning moves to central stage and becomes the chief organisational principle around which business strategy and competitive advantage can be developed." ²³.

The key characteristics of a learning organisation are:

• creating new knowledge as a central part of competitive strategy
• encouraging managers to act as mentors, coaches and learning facilitators
• having systems for sharing knowledge and learning, interpreting it and using it in the business
• linking employees' self-development to the development of the organisation as a whole
• providing frequent opportunities to learn from experience
• striving for continuous improvement
• viewing the unexpected as an opportunity to learn
• valuing the diversity of the contribution from across the whole workforce

We strongly support the use of Investors in People (IiP) as a key tool in developing learning organisations. Scotland currently has over 3,500 companies recognised as Investors in People. The Standard is usually delivered in Scotland by the Enterprise Networks, with the final award being approved by IiP Scotland, and is built on four key principles. These principles - commitment, planning, action and evaluation - are underpinned by 12 indicators of good practice.

Accessing information on appropriate training opportunities often presents a considerable barrier for businesses, particularly SMEs. We are addressing this through the development of the " learndirect scotland for business" service to work in partnership with other organisations and initiatives. We consider that there is further potential for partnership working of this kind to improve the way in which businesses access learning.

The provision of learning that is accessible in the workplace is important. It should be possible to satisfy, in whole or in part, the learning needs of an organisation within the workplace to cut down on costs, especially opportunity costs, to business. E-learning offers some solutions here as well as other forms of distance learning. We need to build on the work that is already taking place, for instance that described below within NHSScotland, to bring flexible, good quality learning to the workplace. We also want to work with the grain of employers' own investment in training, to promote workplace learning and help businesses better understand what is available and what is relevant to their needs ²⁴.

To realise this, we will:

	1. pilot Business Learning Accounts as a key driver to stimulate learning and business growth in small businesses, providing them with the tools to link training needs with business growth and funding to match the businesses' own investment. The pilot BLA scheme is being developed in consultation with key stakeholders and will be launched early this year.
	2. work with the Enterprise Networks to re-engineer work-based training for young people (Skillseekers), introducing pre-apprenticeships to link with vocational learning in schools, address core skills and provide better progression routes to Modern Apprenticeships or further education. We are also working with the Sector Skills Councils to identify opportunities to improve the provision offered under Skillseekers and to design new pre-apprenticeship frameworks. We aim to start piloting these later in 2003.
	3. redesign Training for Work to improve its effectiveness and flexibility in enabling jobless adults to enter sustained employment and to articulate better with other interventions available, including UK Welfare to Work programmes. A joint working party between the Enterprise Networks and Jobcentre Plus is aiming to test these changes to Training for Work in 2003 with a view to rolling out a new programme in 2004.
	4. support UK Skills and The Prince's Trust with their plans to hold 'SkillCity'-type roadshows in Scotland in collaboration with the Enterprise Networks and employer-led Sector Skills Councils to ensure that young people get the opportunity to consider the wide range of skilled employment.
	5. work with employers and trade unions to raise awareness of the impact of low levels of literacy and numeracy and develop resources to support workplace initiatives in consultation with relevant stakeholders 26 .
	6. provide funding to learndirect scotland to pilot, on a national basis and to SMEs, the provision of 'learning centres in a box'.
	We will also continue to:
	7. look for skills and learning to be a key feature of Local Economic Forums' local economic development strategies, due by April 2003.
	8.expand the Scottish Union Learning Fund scheme to further build trade union capacity to promote lifelong learning in the workplace. In particular we will welcome bids from trade unions to put in place programmes to encourage people to return to learning, such as those developed by the Workers' Educational Association (WEA) in partnership with UNISON, for workers in local authorities, education and health.
	9. work with employers and voluntary and community-based organisations to increase the availability of programmes designed to enable adults to return to learning.
	10. look to learndirect scotland to evaluate the work of Training Partners who have been employed to work with individual SMEs as part of " learndirect scotland for business".
	11. participate fully in the UK-wide review of National and Scottish VQs. Our vision is to produce a coherent and high quality system of VQs, which complements and supports other learning, and is fit for its purpose of helping employers meet their skill needs and individuals to meet their aspirations. A programme of work to progress this review will be in place by 31 March 2003.
	12. look to the Executive's Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) framework to ensure, through effective partnership working and ongoing monitoring and evaluation, that a significant percentage of those made redundant are moved into alternative employment or training opportunities within six months, to enable more people to become and remain active in the labour market.
	13.demonstrate good practice by implementing and continuously improving our own Learning Strategy for Scottish Executive staff.

"Policy must ensure that the lifelong learning infrastructure makes sense and is easy to negotiate from the individual's point of view."
ELLC evidence, CBI Scotland

goal 4
A Scotland where people are given the information, guidance and support they need to make effective learning decisions and transitions

We want lifelong learning to be focused on delivering what learners want and need. To do this, learning providers must continue to work out new ways to design, deliver and evaluate learning which meets learners' needs. It is particularly important that they deliver learning in ways that helps learners make transitions between learning opportunities and into and out of learning. Every effort should be made to ensure that all learners are given the information, guidance and support they need at transition points to make an informed decision about their next move; and that the right kind of assistance is available to support continued learning:

• from school to the world of work and training, or further or higher education
• from college to an HEI
• from college or HEI into the workplace
• from community-based learning to the college classroom
• from work to study and study to work
• from non-learning into learning

Transitions of this kind are very important - and can be very different or difficult to manage, whether by a learner, an institution or a sector. Transitions are very significant in the lives of individual learners. A good experience, supported and grounded by good advice and, where appropriate, by good personal and financial support, breeds confidence and further success. Poor experiences can have the opposite effect. Problems can arise through systems failures, such as a lack of information or inarticulation between different kinds and levels of qualifications, and transactional failures where institutions fail to work well together. We attach considerable importance to addressing both forms of difficulty.

The context in which we operate means that these transitions are likely to become increasingly significant.

• School leavers are faced with many different options and often have little experience to guide their choices. They need more exposure to all the options available to them so they can make informed choices about their future. Transitions for school leavers with additional support needs can be particularly difficult and outcomes poor.
• Those who have worked hard to get an HNC or HND at their local college and now feel ready to study for a degree at an HEI need to be able to find out what options are open to them and to be supported in the early days of that transition ²⁷.
• Those studying at our colleges and HEIs need to have a clear picture of the jobs market in order to make properly informed choices and to prepare for the world of work.
• Those who have been learning in more informal community settings, closer to home, may find they have the confidence and ability to undertake more formal learning at a nearby FE college or HEI. We need to understand their needs better and help them to understand what this transition involves.
• Workers who want to re-train and upskill to suit new demands, may return to formal learning after a long gap. They need learning providers to be flexible about the routes into and around the learning arena.

Dealing with new experiences, though difficult, is an important part of learning, but people in transition should be able to access the information, guidance and support they need. Smoothing the transitions makes good sense all round - the learner benefits and so too do learning providers. Failure and breakdown are costly to all. This issue lies at the heart of the Beattie Committee report, in response to which Inclusiveness projects, managed by Careers Scotland, have been set up across the country. The new key workers are instrumental in providing one-to-one support for young people with additional support needs, working in partnership with learning providers and others. The draft Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Bill emphasises the importance of planning and preparation for transition and the need for input from a range of agencies.

Many learning providers are well aware that individuals often find themselves vulnerable at times of transition. They are making a special effort to welcome learners who come with different experiences and qualifications. The work of local authority community education services, the outreach work done by FE colleges in their local communities, the work of HEIs and FE colleges with schools through the Wider Access Fora, the growing number of formal and informal articulation agreements between community-based providers, FE colleges and HEIs are all testament to the fact that learning providers are serious about supporting learners through transitions.

However by working together more closely, all the lifelong learning players can facilitate these transitions more effectively. For our part, we will work with the grain of the existing developments we have outlined above. We will help and encourage those who fund and provide learning to work together more consistently and effectively, to make effective and confident transitions the norm.

"proposals for a more integrated and flexible system remain the only comprehensive solution to widen access and achieve a lifelong learning economy"
ELLC evidence, NUS Scotland

To realise this, we will:

	1. effect a step change in the way in which schools prepare young people for the world of work by a comprehensive set of proposals to implement the recommendations in the Enterprise in Education Report, 'Determined to Succeed'. Our response to that Report (which we will publish shortly) will set out how we plan to expand existing provision of Enterprise in Education to a position where the Executive alone will be committing 22m a year by 2006.
	2. pilot a Personal Lifelong Learning Plan with school leavers in 2004 to record their achievements and plan future learning. The Plan would not be based solely on academic qualifications, but could also help people record and plan on-the-job learning and experience with a view to acting as a CV. The Plan would link with current developments on Personal Learning Plans for all schoolchildren and also provide signposts to, for example, learndirect scotland and Careers Scotland, to help individuals identify what learning they need and where they can do it.
	3. ask the SQA, FE colleges and HEIs to collaborate when qualifications are being developed, so as to maximise the potential for articulation and transition across the sectors, and to provide information to students on courses where specific arrangements are available.
	4. take receipt of proposals from the Funding Councils in the summer on how we can use the outcome of the FE/HE articulation exercise undertaken by the Scottish Advisory Committee on Credit and Access (SACCA), in collaboration with the Wider Access Regional Fora. This would cover mapping, student tracking and bridging arrangements to maximise the benefits for learners and extend good practice in this area.
	5.develop a joint schools/FE strategy and implementation plan, including review of funding mechanisms to ensure flexibility of delivery, so as to encourage locally relevant links between schools, FE colleges and local employers to ease school leavers' transitions into further learning, training or employment.
	6. improve the quality and consistency of information for learners. We have established the national database of learning opportunities, serviced by learndirect scotland, to be the gateway for information to learners. We will ask learndirect scotland, Careers Scotland and Futureskills Scotland to work together to achieve this. Others will be involved too. Our aim is to ensure that learners have a seamless service incorporating the provision of information and the guidance offered by Careers Scotland to support learners in making the best use of this.
	7. develop the ways in which schools (mainstream and special), Careers Scotland, the Enterprise Networks and FE colleges help young people with additional support needs to make effective transitions - and sustain them post-school.
	We will also continue to:
	8. resource the development and implementation of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework which will aid greater understanding and recognition of achievement through a range of qualifications and experiences. The framework will provide greater clarity about the relative position of different qualifications, supporting progression between sectors and providers. It will be easier for learners to understand the relative value of learning and credit already accumulated and how this can be used as a stepping-stone to further participation in learning.
	9. ask the Funding Councils and Enterprise Networks to plan the most effective use of resources to meet local demand for learning and training, agreeing joint targeting and funding where appropriate.
	10.continue to implement the recommendations of the Beattie report, including options for post-school educational psychological services.

goal 5
A Scotland where people have the chance to learn, irrespective of their background or current personal circumstances

Supporting Learners

The systems that are in place to provide support to individual learners relate to the broad customer base described in Part 2: Setting the context. We believe it is appropriate that the arrangements for funding individual learners should reflect this diversity of learners' individual circumstances and the learning opportunities available to them.

We attach considerable importance to the view that each person should take personal responsibility for investing in the development of their own knowledge and skills within their means, beyond the initial stage of post-compulsory education. We also believe that employers should assume similar primary responsibilities in workplace learning.

The support available to learners from public resources can be justified in terms of the wider social and economic gains that result from that learning, over and above the private gains to individuals. Where the evidence shows that there are significant private returns to be had from a learning experience (such as from a degree course ²⁸), it is reasonable to expect a contribution to the costs of learning from the individuals and organisations concerned. Similarly, we seek to avoid funding learning that an individual would have undertaken and paid for themselves without support from government or which could or should be supported by an employer. To create stability and clarity within the system, we need to avoid, as far as possible, the introduction of differentials into the levels of funding for learners aimed at addressing specific occupational or sectoral labour shortages. The general principle should be that such shortages should be addressed through employment terms and conditions within the employment sectors themselves and that learning providers work closely with employers to ensure that provision reflects sectoral needs.

We believe that we can deliver significant improvements for learners, employers and learning providers if we make sure that there is both increased clarity and equity in the system. Providing better information and guidance for learners and employers about the funding that is available to them is a first and important step. This needs to be coupled with those changes to the funding systems that are necessary to bring about more equity of opportunity for individual learners, taking account of their personal circumstances.

Funding Learning Providers

We believe that the arrangements for funding the various provider sectors should continue to reflect the diversity of the learning opportunities they provide.

The funding we make available to institutions has to recognise the enormous variety in post-compulsory education and training - from the relatively centrally-designed curricula courses in NQs offered by individual colleges to degree courses designed and delivered by HEI departments, from classroom-based to those with highly supervised practical elements, or which face other specific cost pressures. The distribution of funding has to recognise this variety, without becoming too complex.

We believe that the application of over-simplified funding arrangements, although superficially attractive would, in reality, damage learning providers and the interests of learners themselves.

Within the constraints of our overall spending plans, we want to resource all types of institutions to deliver what is asked of them, and to support our aspiration of equity of opportunity for learners. There needs to be public confidence about the way funding is distributed to all learning providers. Differences in approach for different types of learning need to be explicable. But the distribution of funding will never be completely uncontroversial, and there will always be differences of opinion about what is fair. What government can and should do is ensure that its agencies can explain the approaches they use, that the differences between these can be justified by the purpose of the funding and, above all, that the focus of funders and providers is on what is achieved with funding provided.

In summary, our vision is of a system in which there are:

• no gaps or unjustifiable differences in the provision of funding for learners;
• transparent institutional funding mechanisms related to the costs of delivery that distribute resources so that our objectives can be delivered at every level; and
• clear, accurate and relevant information and guidance on the funding available to individuals and businesses for learning, delivered through joined-up information services.

To realise this, we will:

	1.merge SFEFC and SHEFC. This merger would make possible greater comparability and transparency in the way that different types of institution and levels of courses are funded in tertiary education. It will also provide an opportunity to ensure even closer integration between the work of the Funding Councils and the Enterprise Networks. A merger of the two Councils will require new legislation. We will need to consider the role, powers and scope of the combined funding body very carefully. While there are important and significant areas of interface between the two sectors, both have distinctive roles and purposes, which will need to be fully understood and reflected in any new arrangements. Furthermore, it will be important to manage any transitions carefully to avoid destabilising the sectors. We will consider the detailed implications of a merger and when and how it could be taken forward in close consultation with all relevant stakeholders. In the meantime, we will continue to encourage closer working between the two Councils including through the existing common executive.
	2. carry out a full review of the funding of learners during the course of 2003, in close consultation with all relevant stakeholders and drawing on all the available evidence. The review will clarify the principles of learner support, using those described above as a starting point. The review will not re-examine the basic principles underpinning the support of students in the HE sector and it will not revisit the provision of free tuition and the introduction of the Graduate Endowment. The review will consider the scope and practicalities for extending the existing entitlements to funding for learners.
	3.in the meantime, look to improve access to lifelong learning for particular groups of people whose formal education has been disrupted or cut short. We will begin by developing an entitlement programme for those leaving care, as part of our work on improving throughcare and aftercare services for these young people. This programme will concentrate on young people leaving care whose schooling has been interrupted.
	4. establish a single national source of information and advice on funding that is linked to information in the national database on learning opportunities, serviced by learndirect scotland. We shall, therefore, work with learndirect scotland and Student Awards Agency for Scotland to find the most efficient way of doing this, ensuring that this information is available to those traditionally disengaged from learning.
	5.carry out an updated Scottish-based Student Income and Expenditure Survey. We propose to cover the FE as well as the HE sector, in order to improve our information base about those groups of individuals who face the greatest financial barriers to entering and remaining in education.
	6.establish a pilot programme relating to community budgeting, which, amongst other objectives, is intended to encourage the pooling of budgets by local partners as part of the community planning process, of which community learning and development is a part.
	We will also continue to:
	7. promote increased investment in lifelong learning institutions by continuing to facilitate take-up of European funding and, more specifically, the use of the European Investment Bank for capital funding.
	8.encourage SFEFC and the Enterprise Networks to work together to ensure greater coherence in the funding of the programmes they support.