The United Kingdom’s skills landscape is undergoing significant reform in response to rapidly transforming domestic and global economies. In Scotland, the policy of free tuition has been promoted to increase access to higher education, aiming to develop a highly skilled workforce.

The current UK Labour government and the devolved governments have recognised the critical role of skills to boosting economic growth. Initiatives such as Skills England have been launched to align training programmes with the evolving needs of the economy, aiming to improve productivity and competitiveness.

Moreover, the expansion of the clean energy sector underscores the importance of developing competencies essential for the net-zero transition, presenting both challenges and opportunities for skills development. The transition also necessitates re-training workers in the fossil fuels industry, which has encouraged the development of regional skills investment programmes and experimental policies such as the [Energy] skills passport for oil and gas workers.

This workshop brings together academics, policymakers and the wider policy community to facilitate a deeper understanding of the successes and challenges within different national and regional contexts and to analyse the primary importance of skills to the objectives of economic growth and the net-zero transition.

Programme

13:00-13:30: Arrivals

• Participants should arrive from 13:00 for a 13:30 start

13:30-14:00: Welcome and Paper Presentation

• Welcome by orgainsers Dr. Steven Ballantyne (Freie Universit¨at Berlin) and Dr.

Elke Heins (University of Edinburgh)

• Presentation of the paper: ’Constrained divergence? The diversity of youth transition

systems within a devolved United Kingdom’

• Questions and discussion

14:00-14:30: Foundation Apprenticeships in Aberdeenshire: Delivering

Positive Outcomes for Young People and Employers

• Presentation by Andrew Ritchie, Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) Lead

Officer, Aberdeenshire Council

• Questions and discussion

14:30-15:00: The National Energy Skills Accelerator: Power in Partnership

• Presentation by Lauren Braidwood, Senior Skills Manager, Energy Transition Zone

(ETZ)

• Questions and discussion

15:00 -15:30: Tea and Coffee Break

15:30-16:30: Roundtable Discussion: The Skills Landscape in the UK:

Challenges and Opportunities for Boosting Economic Growth and Achieving

Net Zero

• Participants include:

– Gordon McGuiness, Director of Industry and Enterprise Networks, Skills

Development Scotland

– Jane Duffy, Head of Education Alignment and Apprenticeships, Scottish

Government

– Oscar Valiente, Professor of Education and International Development, University

of Glasgow

– Dewi Knight, Director, PolicyWise

– Tommy Breslin, Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC)

– Cameron Storey, Department of Work and Pensions, United Kingdom

16:30-16:45: Conclusions and Closing Comments from Workshop Organisers

16:45-17:15: Networking and Refreshments

Collaborative Workshop: Skills in the UK