Industry Advisory Group for rUK Talent Attraction minutes: January 2023

Attendees and apologies

Attendees

• (Chair) Ivan McKee, Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise
• Craig Clark, Space Scotland
• Shona Darroch, Diodes
• Ross Tuffee, Digital Technologies Skills Group
• Mark Cowan, Scottish Leather Group
• Linda Spence, TalentScotland
• Marion Beattie, Skills Development Scotland
• Lloyd Vaughan, Nile HQ
• Greig Rooney, Valneva

SG officials

• Lisa Buchan, Team Leader, Skills, Talent Attraction and Retention
• Elaine Park, Senior Policy Officer, Skills, Talent Attraction and Retention
• Lisa Young, Policy Officer, Skills, Talent Attraction and Retention

Apologies

• Emma Harcus, Scottish Enterprise
• Steven Grier, Microsoft
• Colin Halpin, Scottish Financial Enterprise/Barclays
• Gordon McGuinness, Skills Development Scotland
• Shona Artale, Q2 Solutions
• Justin Black, Hays Recruitment
• Karen Meechan, ScotlandIS

Items and actions

Welcome and apologies

Welcome extended and apologies noted.

Progress on actions and summary of discussion from previous meetings

Mr McKee invited comment and approval of previous meeting notes.

Meeting notes were approved.

Action update from last meeting

Update on previous actions, progress and next steps.

Minister and IAG members were happy with progress.

Discussion took place around research comparisons from countries like Australia or America on how they recruit talent from neighbouring States.

Intervention programme

Mr McKee invited discussion on the table of Talent Attraction Interventions already circulated.

Discussion about potential interventions included ways to progress:

• sectoral recruitment campaigns
• targeted LinkedIn advertising based on specific features such as job title, location, experience level, sector
• sector specific key messaging and narrative for industries to use during recruitment campaigns and initiatives
• developing a recruitment toolkit for businesses and industry bodies to use on their website social media to demonstrate they are advocates for attracting talent to Scotland
• investigating the use of QR codes
• creating a sector specific resource to showcase and profile Scotland
• identify successful Business leaders, why they chose to live and work in Scotland - outline pros/cons, infrastructures already in place that might encourage people to move to Scotland to connect more easily with a specific organisation or sector
• promoting the diversity of the Scottish workforce and the excellent opportunities for career progression within Scotland
• developing a Welcome Box and how that could be used for a variety of reasons including data, monitoring issues, hurdles, as well as welcoming new people to, or returners back to Scotland
• increasing visibility through sponsoring or speaking at industry conferences
• listing/building connections with rUK universities to recruit to placement programmes in Scotland
• including information about opportunities in Scotland with marketing material SAAS sends out when people register for university
• sponsoring professional meetups in rUK cities

Data update

Data presentation was shared and discussed.

Scotland’s Social Contract was referred to.

Close of meeting and final remarks - Any other business and date of next meeting

Mr McKee invited comments from Citizen’s Rights Team Leader on how the remit of the IAG links with the Talent Attraction and Retention Service (TAMS).

The Citizen’s Rights Team confirmed their remit is different from that of the IAG. Key issues are immigration hurdles, aim is to provide welcoming support when people land, breakdown the perception of it being really difficult, Scotland is welcoming.

The next meeting will be on 22 March 2023.