Skills are at the heart of Curriculum for Excellence: skills for learning, skills for life, skills for work. Curriculum for Excellence will support all children and young people in developing skills which they will use throughout their lives and in their work, including the development of enterprise and employability skills, personal skills, cognitive skills and the opportunity to put learning into practice. 
On October 28, 2009 the Scottish Government published Building the Curriculum 4: Skills for Learning, Skills for Life and Skills for Work which emphasises the importance of the development of skills in learning and education to help young people develop the four capacities. It also underlines the importance of partnership working in order to deliver Curriculum for Excellence.
Sustainable Development Education provides a platform for young people to develop their abilities to evaluate environmental, scientific and technological issues as well as to debate informed, ethical views on complex issues such as climate change, globalisation, migration, human rights, etc.
In Skills for Scotland, the Scottish Government made a commitment to ensure that vocational skills and qualifications have parity of esteem with academic skills and qualifications. Skills for Work qualifications have been designed to provide practical learning opportunities for school pupils in a range of subject areas and are now available in all authorities in Scotland.