Industry Advisory Group for rUK Talent Attraction minutes: April 2022

Attendees and apologies

Attendees

• (Chair) Ivan McKee, Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise
• Shona Artale, Q2 Solutions
• Craig Clark, Space Scotland
• Mark Cowan, Scottish Leather Group
• Colin Halpin, Scottish Financial Enterprise
• Shona Darroch, Diodes
• Sarah Ronald, Nile HQ
• Grieg Rooney, Valneva
• Ross Tuffee, Digital Technologies Skills Group
• Gordon McGuinness, Skills Development Scotland
• Julie Morrison, Scottish Enterprise

SG Officials

• Adam Reid, Deputy Director, Skills Division
• Carron Flockhart, Unit Head, Future Skills Strategy
• Lisa Buchan, Team Leader: Skills, Talent Attraction and Retention
• Colin Carroll, Team Leader, Citizen’s Rights
• Olivia Pires, Team Leader, Migration Strategy
• Mike Tuckwell, Senior Policy Officer: Skills, Talent Attraction and Retention

Apologies

• Justin Black, Hays Recruitment
• Morag Watson, Scottish Renewables
• Steven Grier, Microsoft

Items and actions

Welcome and introductions

Mr McKee: Welcome extended and thanks for agreeing to be part of this Industry Group on Talent Attraction.

Introductions given by everyone in attendance.

Agenda items

The main points discussed were:

• scope and remit of the group: focus is on high value sectors initially with a geographical target of rest of UK (rUK) and CTA; immigration is out of scope as is skills interventions such as Graduate Apprenticeships

Issues impacting on attraction and retention were highlighted as:

• salary inflation
• retention of staff
• culture and values
• impact of COVID-19 leading to re-evaluation of people’s lives and careers
• discussion around promotion of Scotland as a competitive career destination for rUK talent included
• identifying opportunities to work with universities and alumni networks
• clusters and sectors may increase greater awareness of opportunities by working together to promote activities and build a skills pipeline
• utilising data to target sectors and areas
• creating a narrative around our values e.g. net zero
• recognising Entrepreneurs possess valuable transferable skills that can be applied across sectors

The actions arising were

• Scottish Government to organise focus sessions to explore talent attraction and retention more closely

• develop a program of talent attraction and retention activities

• present the outcomes of these sessions at the next full meeting of the Group on 8th June for discussion and endorsement

Close of meeting and final remarks- AOB and date of next meeting

Mr McKee thanked everyone for attending and advised the next meeting date would be confirmed in due course.