Employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship

SQA welcomes the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) report The Employability Challenge, which engages in a full discussion of the issues around employability and provides excellent examples of good practice.

Aimed at teaching and training professionals, and those involved in policy, funding and assessment, the report makes clear that employability skills are needed for the UK economy to achieve its productivity goals; for individuals to get, and progress in, rewarding work; and to meet UK employment and skills policy.

Although the report acknowledges there is no definitive agreement on what employability skills are, it suggests that a number of common elements can be distinguished.

It distils these into an approach which has as its basis a positive attitude overlaid by three skills, which are using numbers, using language and using IT, These, in turn, are expressed through four personal skills – self management, thinking and problem-solving, working together and communicating, and understanding the business.

As the report makes clear, ‘Employability skills will make specific knowledge and technical skills fully productive’ and two things are essential to make that happen.

First, for learners, the development of employability skills needs to involve experiential action learning, work experience, and reflection and integration.

Secondly, there must be greater engagement with employers –drawing on their expertise, involving them in the process and ensuring their needs are met.

The report reflects SQA’s own approach and policies, which are borne out in the range of initiatives and developments that SQA has been undertaking over the past few years. These fall into five broad strands – working with employers and SSCs; employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship; new qualifications; vocational qualifications; and Core Skills – and you are invited to find out how we are meeting the employability challenge by using the links below.

We also look forward to working further with all our partners and stakeholders to ensure that this aspect of learner development continues to be enhanced.

SQA has a strong and consistent track record of work with employers, Sector Skills Councils and professional bodies.

This includes:

• Direct involvement of employers, Sector Skills Councils and professional bodies in all aspects of qualification development and maintenance. The main mechanisms for this are through representation on Qualification Design Teams, Validation Panels and Qualification Support Teams, and SQA has a formal protocol with Sector Skills Councils to encourage partnership. We also carry out extensive consultations with employers during qualification review and development.
• SSC and employer representation on key committees and groups to provide a strategic overview of qualification design, development and implementation.
• Working through partnerships with colleges and training providers to develop closer links with local employers.

This close partnership with employers and Sector Skills Councils ensures that SQA designs and develops qualifications that are fit-for-purpose and reflect the needs of the industries and sectors they support.

Opportunities for learners to develop employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship skills are provided by SQA in different ways.

For example, these skills may be developed and assessed through qualifications specifically designed for this purpose. Such qualifications include Employability, Personal Development and Work Experience Units, Courses and Group Awards.

Other opportunities are provided by embedding work/placement experience and/or employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship skills within a wider qualification.

We have seen as steady rise in the uptake of qualifications specifically designed to develop and assess employment skills. For example, uptake has risen from 1173 awards in 2006, to 2556 in 2007, and then to 3730 in 2008. There is also a healthy uptake of Work Experience Units at SCQF levels 3 – 7 with 8,976 candidates entered in the year 2008/9.

To find out about qualifications that are available to support the development of these skills, please follow the links below.

• National Progression Award in Enterprise & Employability at SCQF level 4 and SCQF level 5
• National Progression Award in Enterprise & Business at SCQF level 6
• Personal Development qualifications from SCQF levels 2 – 6
• SQA Awards
• National Qualifications catalogue
• Higher National Qualifications catalogue

SQA has also produced a leaflet to provide guidance on embedding employability and enterprise in its qualifications.

• Enterprise and Employability leaflet

Curriculum reform in Scotland provides an excellent opportunity to build employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship skills into the new qualifications being developed.

SQA has already made in-roads in this area through:

• the development of Skills for Work courses, which embed learning and skills development in real life or simulated work experience
• the new Baccalaureates in Science, and Languages, which introduce project-based work related to business and industry
• the More Choices, More Chances initiative, which will develop qualifications that recognise, or provide, work or other practical experience
• the Wider Achievement suite of qualifications, which includes awards such as Employability, Leadership, Steps to Work, Volunteering Skills and many more

Through Curriculum for Excellence, employability and Core Skills development will be integral to the new qualifications. In addition, the new Scottish Certificate in Literacy and Scottish Certificate in Numeracy will provide two essential Core Skills for all learners by the end of S3.

SQA offers a comprehensive range of vocational qualifications that prepare people for the workplace and further study.

These qualifications are available in a wide variety of vocational areas/subjects and at different SCQF levels that will suit the needs of employers and candidates.

Our range of vocational qualifications includes:

• Scottish Vocational Qualifications
• Higher National Certificates and Diplomas
• National Qualification Group Awards, which include National Certificates and National Progression Awards

Core Skills lie at the heart of SQA qualifications, and Core skills are either embedded or signposted in all SQA’s major qualifications using the Core Skills Framework. This framework covers five Core Skills – Communication, Numeracy, Information and Communication Technology, Problem Solving, and Working with Others – at SCQF levels 2 – 6.

Core Skills are also offered as stand alone qualifications in the form of Core Skills Units, which may form part of a larger qualification such as a Group Award. In the academic year, 2007/8, 65,056 Core Skills qualifications were achieved ranging from SCQF 2 – 6. This included:

• 16,640 in Communication
• 11,140 in Numeracy
• 23,063 in Information and Communication Technology
• 11,768 in Working with Others
• 2,445 in Problem Solving

All five Core Skills have been identified in the UKCES report as being fundamental to the development of wider employability skills and therefore SQA is proud to be playing its part in helping learners taking its qualifications to achieve these Core Skills.