Fit for the Future: developing a post-school learning system to fuel economic transformation

Summary of Proposed Reforms

I have set out, in this report, fifteen recommendations to Ministers, five of which are key structural recommendations aimed at rationalising and improving the agency landscape, and the remaining ten of which are operational recommendations which relate to the governance structures and processes which will help, based on that critical agency infrastructure, to build a new integrated post-school learning system which has skills development fully embedded within it.

The five structural recommendations are:

• To move responsibility for national skills planning from Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and Scottish Funding Council (SFC) to the Scottish Government. (Recommendation 3)
• To establish a new single funding body, which brings together responsibility for all post-school learning and training funding functions from SFC, SDS and, potentially, the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS). (Recommendation 5)
• To give the new qualifications body a clear remit for overseeing development and accreditation of all publicly funded post-school qualifications and the underpinning skills frameworks and occupational standards. (Recommendation 8)
• To substantively reform SDS to focus on the development of a national careers service, with a mission to embed careers advice and education within communities, educational settings and workplaces across Scotland. (Recommendation 11)
• To give the enterprise agencies a clear remit for supporting businesses with workforce planning as an embedded and integrated part of business development and planning. (Recommendation 13).

Together, the implementation of these five recommendations would establish the public body landscape which I think is needed to underpin and enable the changes to governance and processes that are required for the system to deliver on Ministers ambitions. Therefore, although they are separate recommendations, collectively they form a package of public service reform, which, in my view, would need to be implemented in full.

Graphic text below:

In the center Scotland's Post-School Learning System Public Body Landscape

Moving clockwise, these processes flow together as follows: 

- Scottish government, Strategic policy direction and leadership, system governance, budget setting and skills planning;

- New National Qualifications Body, responsible for post-school qualification, skills frameworks and occupational standards;

- New single Funding Body, responsible for funding and overseeing delivery of all post-school learning and training provision;

- Enterprise Agencies (SE, HIE and SOSE), Integrated business development and workforce planning advice and support; 

- New Careers body (a reformed Skills Development Scotland), Embedding careers advice and education within the learning system and communities;

I have quite purposefully, and in line with my Terms of Reference (ToR), approached the Review with a focus on functions rather than the current remits of existing agencies. This has enabled me to look beyond the status quo and propose what I think is a rational reorganising of the landscape which will reduce confusion and duplication and generate efficiencies. While I have sought to develop a clearer delineation of responsibilities within the public bodies, I am aware of the interrelated nature of the different parts of the post-school learning system. In establishing the public body landscape, it will therefore be critical that collaboration is built into the design of the bodies and that they are all able to operate both in line with their own specific remits, and together towards shared ambitions for the system.

I recognise that the reforms will require structural changes to bodies, including through primary legislation. I am also aware that they will impact on the people working in those organisations. For that reason, they will take time to implement and require careful consideration by Ministers and specialists on the practicalities of bringing them into reality. Without access to legal and HR expertise, this has been beyond the scope of my Review.

These five structural recommendations are supported by my further ten operational recommendations which are focused on the governance and processes that I think need to be improved within the system and which will be critical in establishing the remits and responsibilities, culture and behaviours of this reformed agency landscape and providing clarity to wider actors in the system about their roles and expectations.

These operational recommendations are:

• New culture of leadership from Scottish Government (Recommendation 1).
• Define success and end the division in language and philosophy (Recommendation 2).
• Establish areas of strategic workforce opportunity and need and empower regional partners to develop their own solutions (Recommendations 3 and 4).
• Build a new model of funding for post-school learning provision, with simplicity and parity of esteem as core values (Recommendation 6).
• Provide funding options for living costs for those who want to study part-time/flexibly (Recommendation 7).
• Review post-school qualifications, using SCQF as a foundation, to create clear learning pathways underpinned by a universal skills framework and occupational standards and to drive further modularisation (Recommendation 9).
• Develop a new, national, lifelong and digital training record to chart skills development through life, connecting into a revitalised careers service (Recommendation 10).
• Expand the remit of the existing DYW network to establish a national employer board and a series of regional employer boards which put employer views at the heart of skills planning, national strategy and the development of post-school learning system. In doing so the Scottish Apprenticeship Advisory Board (SAAB) should be wound up (Recommendation 12).
• Explore greater private sector investment in the post-school learning system and, in particular, in the provision of in-work learning opportunities (Recommendation 14).
• A new, clear map should be developed to direct users into the system (Recommendation 15).

Again, although these are individual recommendations, they are intended to support a holistic vision for the future landscape, and I would encourage Ministers to see them as such. Implementing one recommendation in isolation will be unlikely to deliver the system-wide change that is required.

I have not, during this Report, set out any expectation around the potential timescales for implementing these changes, recognising that many will be contingent on the timetable for the wider reforms of the agency landscape. However, I do want to highlight five of the above recommendations which I consider should be short-term priorities for Ministers and should be developed in parallel to the wider agency reforms. Developing the purpose and principles; establishing new skills planning processes; determining a new model for funding; carrying out an audit of post-school qualifications; and establishing the network of employer boards, although all distinct projects in their own right, collectively will establish the procedural infrastructure under which the new public bodies should operate and enable the implementation of the remaining wider recommendations. Importantly the outcomes of these will also provide much-needed clarity to key stakeholders about how things are going to work in the future and in turn help to create a more accessible and tailored approach to those who rely on the system for their learning needs.