More Choices, More Chances for Scottish Learners
The Scottish Government launched a consultation into the shape of the Next Generation of the Qualifications for Scotland's Young People at a conference on Glasgow on 10 June 2008. The event at Celtic Park in Glasgow brought together representatives from across Scotland's education sector to debate the opportunities to improve the educational outcomes for young people in Scotland through the implementation of the Curriculum for Excellence.
The event also saw the launch of the Building the Curriculum 3: A framework for learning and teaching, which is aimed at all those in involved in promoting effective learning and teaching for those aged 3 – 18.
To view the full news release click here
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Royal Bank of Scotland joins e-skills UK board
e-skills UK is delighted to announce that the Royal Bank of Scotland has joined its Board, represented by David Lister, Group CIO and Chief Architect.
Karen Price, CEO of e-skills UK explains: "The Royal Bank of Scotland is an important supporter of e-skills UK's work, and it is excellent news that they are now represented on our CIO Board. This Board, which complements our IT & Telecoms Industry Board, brings together IT leaders from companies in key sectors right across the economy. Given the pivotal role of technology in the financial services sector, we are particularly pleased to now include a retail bank."
Karen thanks David for his commitment to e-skills UK, saying "We are delighted to be able to benefit from David's immense expertise and insight into the skills needed by IT professionals for the UK to compete in the global economy."
Edinburgh-born David Lister, named by Silicon.com as one of the UK's top CIOs last year, joins the Royal Bank of Scotland from Reuters.
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Retail qualifications to be overhauled
Retail qualifications are set to be easier to understand after a Skillsmart Retail strategy to reform them was approved.
The plan to streamline all retail qualifications, The Sector Qualifications Strategy for Retail, was agreed by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) this month.
Among the changes that the strategy will bring will be that qualifications could align to in-house training and current business practices, which would allow retailers to have their in-house training accredited as national qualifications or units within these qualifications.
Qualifications would also be made more flexible and able to be gained through credits awarded for each bite-sized chunk of learning undertaken. Skillsmart Retail, with the support of the retailers, also hopes to reduce the red tape attached to accessing funding. View the full news release
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Improve Outlines Business Benefits of Training
Food and drink employers firmly believe that training brings tangible benefits to their business – yet less than a fifth of enterprises in the sector have a formal training budget.
That's according to new research carried out by the food and drink sector skills council, Improve, which assessed training activities within food and drink manufacturing and looked at the business benefits of up-skilling.
"More than 90 per cent of employers we questioned believed that training improved the quality of their products and services," explained Paul Chapman, head of research and marketing at Improve. "More than four out of five employers also acknowledged that training improves productivity, staff retention and growth capability. Yet the evidence suggests that few employers are investing in training as part of their business strategy. Only 16 per cent have a formal training budget and, on average, just a third of employees have undergone more than five days training in the past year." Read more...
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Lifelong Learning Forum
The 20th Scottish Forum on Lifelong Learning, held by Centre for Research in Lifelong Learning (CRLL)
20th will take place on 1 July 2008. This year's theme is Democratic Learning: Learning for Democracy'. click here for more information.
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IiP Improvement Programme
Investors in People Scotland have, in conjunction with Scottish Enterprise developed the Improvement Programme. This programme has been created specifically for SMEs and will help stimulate and challenge businesses to encourage growth, improve performance and realise the full potential of employees. For more information click here
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EU Skills Research
EU Skills has issued a report, Skills Development and Performance, to explore the idea that by developing skills it is possible to improve the productivity of organisation, in ways that can be measured. It also investigates which specific skills contribute most successfully to performance improvements. Click here to access the report.
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Alliance for Demand Led MAs
The Alliance - Scotland has secured a slot on the agenda of Learning a Trade: Scotland's Apprentices, taking place on 18 June. This conference has been arranged to debate the issues surrounding how best to meet the skills needs of Scotland. The Alliance is pleased to have the opportunity to advocate a demand driven learning system at this event. For more information click here
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e-flash
The latest version of the Grundtvig e-flash has been published. This month's highlights include a study visit to the Scottish countryside, where project members explored good practice in attracting learners from rural environments back into education. Click here to subscribe to the mailing list.
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Parliament Update
Click here to view the latest skills and learning issues raised at the Scottish Parliament.
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Newsletters
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