Post Pandemic: Skilling Scotland

Education and skills are critical, and particularly for future generations.

I will be supporting moves for the further development of a whole system approach to education and training, from nursery school to school, to college and university.

I also support the development of different pathways through learning to provide greater choice and opportunity for learners and businesses.

I will say more about schools in a later blog, but I want here to focus on the skills sector, and in particular for young people about to enter the labour market.

Skills opportunities must take a variety of forms.  For some young people who may have lagged behind at school, they will require well supported first steps into skills training.  We are lucky in having colleges who already have developed the capacity and provision to provide such early support and opportunities.  I will champion the role our colleges, such as Forth Valley College, can play.

I think we could do more to support the development of world leading skills provision. The competitive demands of the 21^st century combined with the right of every Scottish citizen to have the best possible opportunities require further development. At present there is an understandable focus on “competence”.  But as a recent report commissioned by the SNP Government highlighted, we need to target international excellence.

We need to build the qualifications that will allow us to do so.  I will be arguing the we should move beyond benchmarking Scotland’s skills system against other nations of the UK, and refocus on international benchmarking against the best in the world.  This would support the SNP Government’s ambitious international trade policies. 

In my life outside politics, I have been involved in research that has begun to scope out some of the opportunities available to Scotland. 

We need to grasp the international opportunities becoming available and raise our ambitions on behalf of both our young people and our economy. 

Only the very best should ever be good enough.

I have been asked a number of times about ‘the currency issue’ when Scotland is an independent country.

There is no country in the world that does not use at least one currency. A currency provides a means of exchange and an internationally recognisable means to trade. It is underpinned by a financial infrastructure, aimed at securing stability.  There are many currency arrangements in operation across the world. 

Let us quash the first big myth.  There is nothing (and nobody) to stop us using the pound; it being a fully convertible currency.

In many countries across the globe the pound can be used without any agreement from the UK being necessary. Anyone that tries to tell you otherwise is, quite simply, telling you fibs! Ireland, for example, used the pound for 56 years after gaining independence. 

What was discussed during the independence referendum of 2014 was setting up a currency union with the rest of the UK. The UK Government at that time claimed they would not wish to do this – but have subsequently conceded that this was simply them playing politics.  

The Sustainable Growth Commission published in 2018 advised using the pound but without a currency union until such time as it makes economic sense to launch our own currency.  I am happy to leave the precise timing to the judgment of an independent Scottish Government as we can’t know in advance what will be happening globally at the point of independence.  

Many businesses in Scotland already operate in parallel currencies and have accounts in other currencies such as US dollar and the Euro as part of their international trading strategy.

For each option there are considerations; for example, at the point of independence it makes sense to continue contracts such as pensions and mortgages in pounds sterling. Mortgage-holders and issuers, and pensioners will look for stability and certainty at the point of transition.

Fundamentally, you use the currency(s) that suits your needs the best.

Finally, the question of currency has not been vexed over by the multitude of other countries that have become independent. It is but one of the areas that will need to be considered – and by no means the only one. We have already started thinking about transition plans to ensure we are well prepared to provide the Scottish people the strongest possible financial and economic infrastructure to enable the best future choices to be made.   

Scotland’s right to protect our children is under threat from the Tories at Westminster. Sounds unbelievable?

Yes, it does, and all the more shocking that it is true.

On March 16th 2021 the Scottish Parliament approved the bill to enshrine the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into Scots Law.  This international convention is based on the notion that children have clear rights as human beings. It requires governments to enshrine four basic principles in law, namely:

• Non-Discrimination

Governments must respect children’s rights “irrespective of the child's parents or legal guardian, race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, poverty, disability, birth or other status.”

• Best interests of the child

Government’s must adhere to the principle that “In all actions concerning children…… the best interest of the child shall be a primary consideration."

• The right to survival and development

Government’s must “ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child."

• The views of the child

Government’s must ensure “the view of the child (is) given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.”

However, the UK government have indicated in a letter to the Deputy First Minister on 24th March that “our concern is that…. the bill would affect the UK Parliament in its power to make laws for Scotland”.  The UK government is threatening to take their case to the Supreme Court. 

In plain language, the UK government wants to retain the power to make laws for Scotland that may not comply with the rights of the child.

I can think on no better example of where the values of Scotland so dramatically diverge from the attitude of the UK Government.  Scotland has made its choice to value all children, to protect all children and the UK government is now challenging our right to do so.

It is also an example of where Scotland wants to be outward looking, and set the best of ethical standards for our future. Isn’t the future of Scotland deserving of the best?