Learning and skills are at the heart of a more successful Scotland because they support self-confident individuals and stronger communities, and also because smarter Scots are the powerhouse of a more dynamic economy.
The strategy sets out our ambitions for skills, in a lifelong learning context, from cradle to the grave. Covering early years provision, schools, further and higher education, work related learning and informal learning opportunities - it outlines our aims, ambitions and plans for making Scotland's skills base truly world class, ensuring we develop the skills required for the 21st Century.
A Distinctly Scottish Approach
The skills strategy provides a new agenda for skills and learning in Scotland - developing both Scotland's skills policies and its skills landscape in tandem, crafting them into a more coherent structure designed to address Scottish requirements.
Our strategy is also Scotland's response to the vision outlined in the Leitch Review of Skills in the UK. With Scotland's distinct institutions, qualifications and systems, how we achieve that vision will necessarily differ in some ways to the approaches adopted by other countries. We have focussed on Scottish approaches to Scottish issues.
The strategy details what Ministers want from the Government's skills investment and how that is going to be achieved across the whole of the education and lifelong learning portfolio. It articulates potential priorities, choices and options for further discussion for all key stakeholders seeking to challenge and encourage debate. It is a working document to build consensus and act as a tool for delivery of actions for skills development in Scotland.