NEW SCOTS: Attracting Fresh Talent to meet the Challenge of Growth
SUMMARY
PROMOTING SCOTLAND AS A PLACE TO LIVE AND WORK
- Later this year the First Minister will announce details of a global campaign to promote Scotland.
- We will introduce a discrete Fresh Talent promotion campaign, which will include printed materials with factual advice and information for potential in-migrants.
- We will develop a Fresh Talent website so that it offers a comprehensive and interactive advice service to those interested in living and working in Scotland.
- We will set up a Relocation Advice Service which will be operational from October 2004.
- Staff from the Home Office and Work Permits UK will be fully involved in setting up of the Relocation Advice Service.
- Friends of Scotland and GlobalScot will be re-organised to create a more focused relationship with the Scottish Diaspora, to encourage some of them to live and work in Scotland.
- We will do further research work on targeting tourists as potential in-migrants.
PROMOTING SCOTLAND AS A DESTINATION FOR PEOPLE APPLYING FOR UK WORK PERMITS
- The UK website on economic/highly skilled migrants' schemes will display the Fresh Talent link.
- Work Permits UK have agreed to work with the Scottish Executive to explain the service to Scottish employers more effectively.
- WPUK have already agreed to promote themselves proactively to Scottish business, through exhibitions and other activities.
- WPUK, in partnership with the Scottish Executive, will provide training seminars for employers.
- The Scottish Executive will prepare an easy-to-use toolkit for small businesses considering employing staff who require a work permit.
ENCOURAGING STUDENTS AT SCOTTISH UNIVERSITIES TO STAY IN SCOTLAND
* We have reached an agreement with the Home Office which will allow overseas graduates from Scottish universities, who express the intention of living and working in Scotland, to stay on for two years beyond the current October deadline, to seek employment.
- They will be allowed to remain in Scotland and seek any type of work during this time. After two years or earlier, graduates can switch into work permit employment or other legal migration routes for which they qualify.
- The scheme will be up and running by summer 2005, and will apply to those graduating that year.
- The government will fund a scholarship scheme for overseas graduates to allow them to combine a year of post-graduate study with a year of work experience. We are particularly keen to encourage scholarships in the area of entrepreneurship.
- From October 2004 we will appoint champions to encourage students to consider staying in Scotland after graduation.
- We will work with employers to encourage the provision of work placements and traineeships to high quality overseas graduates.
- There will be government funding to help universities to co-ordinate the recruitment and support of overseas students.
IMPROVING FIRST IMPRESSIONS
- We will appoint a senior Scottish figure to lead a task force to examine this issue, and that person will report back to the First Minister by the end of the year.
- Points of entry are also an excellent location to promote Scotland generally and as a place to work and this potential will be included in our plans for future promotional campaigns.
- We will work with others to implement and maintain the Scottish Refugee Integration Forum's action plan which was published in February 2003.
MOVING FORWARD
- We will commission research on demographic trends to further inform the national debate.
- The UK Government has agreed, in principle, to work over the longer term with the Scottish Executive to find ways of encouraging migrants to the UK to live and work in Scotland - within the UK policy of managed migration.
- A working group of Home Office and Scottish Executive officials will be set up to progress this work.
- And we will strive to make Scotland a tolerant, open and diverse country, one where all Scots, regardless of their background or origin, feel at home.