Developing skills and creating good jobs

Scotland’s skills system is often too slow to adapt to the changing needs of workers and employers, and is not sufficiently focused on the needs of the real economy. Scottish Labour will ensure skills policy is aligned with industrial strategy, helping to create good jobs by:

• Establishing a statutory skills board, with a direct role advising on the design of apprenticeships and skills measures. As a sub-group of our new Board of Trade, membership will be drawn from Apprenticeship Levy payers, trade unions and SMEs.
• Producing long-term skills and labour forecasts for key sectors, every three to five years. These forecasts will help inform the work of our new Skills Board and support planning in the skills system.
• Ringfencing Scotland’s share of Apprenticeship Levy funding for skills development, ensuring there is transparency about the funding received by the Scottish Government and committing to spend it on apprenticeships, upskilling and reskilling programmes.
• Supporting graduates to get work-ready, supporting colleges and universities to develop skills-based modules and industrial placements that can be built into existing courses and studies.

Scotland’s Modern Apprenticeship programme is respected for emphasising quality and rigour, but it isn’t accessible enough for those looking for roles, or flexible enough for the modern economy. Scottish Labour will modernise our apprenticeship system so that it delivers a route into well paid, skilled work for young people by:

• Introducing “Taster Apprenticeships”, giving young people experience of a workplace and the apprenticeship model before they commit, to help them find opportunities that suit them best.
  
• Guaranteeing an apprenticeship place for every qualified applicant, with the creation of 9,000 additional apprenticeships in key growth sectors, funded by reallocating resource from Skills Development Scotland.
  
• Creating clearing systems for apprenticeships, similar to the UCAS model, to help young people find new opportunities in key sectors and ensure good candidates do not drop out of the system.
  
• Allowing individuals to tailor their apprenticeship, designating core and optional courses so that employers and apprentices can build a programme that suits their needs and keeps them on the cutting edge of skills development.
  
• Supporting employers to share apprentices, expanding and diversifying the pool of employers participating in the apprenticeship system and creating more opportunities.
  
• Expanding Graduate Apprenticeships, working with universities to increase the range of courses available, so more people can earn while they study for a degree.

People are more likely to be working longer and changing jobs or careers more often. Scotland needs a more agile skills system that helps people of all ages to upskill or retrain so they can find work and progress. Scottish Labour will: 

• Create a Digital Skills Passport, so that everyone has a digital record of their skill level, formal qualifications, work experience, and technical and vocational training. It will provide clarity for employers and workers, helping people to move between jobs and careers.
• Establish a Parent Works Scheme, funding colleges to deliver dedicated training and employment support for parents who are unemployed or in low paid work, so they can fill local skills gaps, boost their household incomes and help lift children out of poverty.
• Launch regional employability hubs, located in local colleges and bringing together skills providers, local businesses, and schools to deliver a single front door into the skills system for anyone who wants to find work or retrain to boost their earnings.
• Embed training and workforce development into public procurement contracts, incentivising businesses to upskill their workforces and driving training options for people across the country.
• Develop short reskilling courses, tailored to fill skills gaps in the local economy and delivered by local colleges.

Creating and protecting good, fair work is at the heart of Scottish Labour’s vision for our economy. Under a Scottish Labour government, growth will come with well paid jobs, a better quality of life, and more businesses owned by workers. We will back the delivery of fair work by:

• Ensuring trade unions always have a seat at the table, with representation on our Board of Trade and inclusion in all engagement work the government does with business.
  
• Promoting best practice through our Board of Trade, sharing learning from businesses and trade unions that have successfully put fair work into practice to benefit industry and workers.
  
• Embedding fair work principles in public procurement and investment, giving weight to social impact, local economic value, and commitments to fair work when awarding public funding or taking investment decisions through SNIB.
  
• Establishing a Scottish Council for Employment Injuries, to advise on the recognition of industrial head injuries in football and the removal of barriers in the current system, particularly for women.
  
• Legislating to protecting workers from assault, bringing in stronger sentences for those who attack people in the course of their work.
  
• Working with local authorities on resolution of equal pay cases, ensuring job revaluations take place without delay.

The skills and vocational education offered by Scotland’s colleges is key to reducing economic inequalities and supporting business, but years of cuts have undermined their social and economic impact. Scottish Labour will give colleges a clear purpose, making them engines of growth and social mobility in regions once again by:

• Recognising colleges as a key partner in our industrial strategy, setting out their distinct roles in each region and connecting them to agreed, measurable outcomes.
  
• Reforming college funding so that it delivers stable multi-year funding which is linked to employment outcomes and apprenticeships, and which allows colleges to invest for expansion.
  
• Creating Apprenticeship Centres of Excellence in colleges around the country, so that key industries have the pipeline of cutting-edge skills they need to grow.
  
• Delivering defence technical colleges, match funding UK Government investment to deliver two sites in Scotland.
  
• Setting up regional Skills Accelerators, with colleges leading collaboration between regional businesses and training providers on skills need, and co-designing training with clear routes to work.
  
• Simplifying vocational qualifications, to create lifelong learning pathways and supporting the development of modular courses that can be tailored to individual and business needs.

Scotland’s universities are among the best in the world and home to groundbreaking research. The sector creates jobs and contributes to local and national economies, but we know that it is facing difficult challenges. Scottish Labour will work to protect access to Scotland’s world-leading universities by:

• Maintaining free tuition for Scotland’s undergraduates, ensuring that attending university can still be an aspiration for all, and Scottish young people continue to benefit from the employment and earning opportunities that come from studying university degrees.
  
• Protecting the sustainability of the sector, working in partnership on a future funding and governance model that delivers accountability and financial stability, and ensures Scotland continues to have a vibrant university sector.
  
• Supporting research capacity in Scotland’s universities, encouraging collaboration between universities and business, improving access to data with the National Data Library and establishing targets for R&D and spin outs.