Tag Archives: skills development

Mark Valladares

9 April 2026 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 9th April 2026 - 10:40 pm
  • Cole-Hamilton sets out plan for a skills revolution
  • Scot Lib Dems call for investment in affordable housing in Mid Scotland & Fife

Cole-Hamilton sets out plan for a skills revolution

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today set out plans for a skills revolution as he met with young scientists at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh today.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats will:

  • Create a new industrial strategy that focuses on what we’re really good at and what we can be good at, and throw the weight and levers of government behind businesses that can help us achieve greater success in life sciences, energy, food and drink, fintech and financial services, defence and more.
  • Develop a new skills strategy, mapping where the gaps are and will be, and fitting training and education systems around it, so that the country secures the skills it needs in everything from social care to engineering and construction.
  • Repair Scotland’s colleges and vocational skills system, and safeguard the future of our world-leading universities.

In the recent budget negotiations, the party secured £70m to start to repair the damage that the SNP have inflicted on the college sector – a 10% budget increase. The party has also secured money to save Corseford College, Scotland’s first college for young adults with complex & additional needs and campaigned to save facilities for Scotland’s rural college in Fife.

Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

Scottish education just isn’t what it used to be. We used to have one of the best education systems in the world, but under the SNP it is now just average. The whole education system isn’t producing the range and depth of skills that businesses and our economy need. It’s ridiculous that the Scottish defence industry is having to hire 300 welders from the Philippines.

Our plan will invest in education at every stage, starting from a young age and continuing throughout adulthood. We want every child to get the support and attention they need at school, so they leave with the skills, confidence and resilience to be happy and successful, whatever they choose to do next.

We will repair Scotland’s colleges and vocational skills system, and safeguard the future of our world-leading universities so that we can deliver a skills revolution.

Unlike the SNP, Scottish Liberal Democrats would get ahead of the curve instead of waiting to pick up the pieces, making the most of Scotland’s homegrown skills, engineering supply chains and natural advantages.

If you believe Scotland needs change, then every vote for the Scottish Liberal Democrats on the second peach ballot will deliver change with fairness at its heart. Scotland deserves better. And with the Scottish Liberal Democrats, you can vote for it.

Scot Lib Dems call for investment in affordable housing in Mid Scotland & Fife

Scottish Liberal Democrat lead candidate for Mid Scotland & Fife, councillor Claire McLaren has today called on the Scottish Government to invest in affordable housing in Stirling, Perth & Kinross, Clackmannanshire and Fife as she revealed that the number of homes completed has fallen by a third over the past two years.

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Michael Berwick-Gooding

A fairer share for all – Part Four – Improving working life and skills and investing in local services

By Michael Berwick-Gooding | Thu 21st March 2019 - 8:53 am

This is the fourth and final part of my looking at the consultation paper, A Fairer Share for All. In part three I have set out my thoughts on the work allowance thresholds.

Turning to minimum wages, I believe we need to have regional minimum wages set at 70% of each region’s medium earnings. In 2020 the National Living Wage will be 60% of medium earnings. I believe that it would take about 7 years to increase the regional rates to 70% as some may have to start below 60%.

We should have a policy of providing free training or a guaranteed job to everyone who has been unemployed for more than 6 months. This should be voluntary. The training should be in an area where there are unfilled jobs within a reasonable travelling distance of the claimant. The guaranteed job should be so that the person keeps their skills up to date and not just to give them a job to do.

The paper states, “A 2016 government estimate that 51% of rural households do not have access to a bus route, compared with 4% of urban dwellers. At the same time, 30% of bus journeys outside London are undertaken by those with elderly or concessionary passes”. It also says that “it is now vital to ensure that traditional bus and rail links within and between our smaller towns and rural areas are properly funded to enable everyone to access services and employment opportunities”. However, the paper doesn’t set out that we should increase funding to local government so they can run rural bus services or that we should provide more rail links between towns. It doesn’t even say we should be building better rail links across northern England between Lancashire and Yorkshire.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 3 Comments
Kirsten Johnson

Digging deeper into No. 1 of Paddy’s Dangerous Ideas

By Kirsten Johnson | Thu 27th December 2018 - 8:19 am

I think the time has come for us to do a lot more with No. 1 of Paddy’s Dangerous Ideas.

We persist in the medieval practice of taking students to medieval ivy-covered buildings, to receive their education in the medieval manner from minds, too many of which, when it comes to delivering education, are stuck in the middle ages. Yet distance learning was pioneered in Britain at the Open University when communicating with your tutor meant stuffing your academic paper in an envelope, licking it, sticking a stamp on it and putting it in the local post-box.

Today the whole planet is into distance learning. Many of our own Universities make tons of money providing distance learning degree courses to students all over the world. But none of them are in Britain! If we were to convert at least part of our tertiary education syllabus to distance learning we might reduce the cost of degrees without diminishing their quality, give students more flexibility, force lecturers into the modern age, widen access and create a superb platform for adult education all at the same time.

Why, beloved Lib Dems, do we allow medieval vested interests to preserve our ivy-covered tertiary education system exactly as it is, loading more and more debt on students and preventing us from doing what much of the rest of the world is doing already? Just asking?

This idea has come back to me in North Devon. A local councillor in South Molton, not realising that it was one of Paddy’s Dangerous Ideas, spoke to me at length about how wonderful the Open University was. How in places like North Devon, where there are no universities, and a real lack of opportunity to advance skills, one can still access the Open University and get a degree. He asked me, how can we build on this model and enable everyone in North Devon to upskill and train?

I am suggesting that one of our best ways of honouring Paddy is to bring some of his Dangerous Ideas into fruition.

Let’s champion life-long learning, as Vince has promoted, by building online learning platforms so that people, whether they live in North Devon or in Shetland, can achieve the same level of accreditation and training as those who live in cities. Let’s put in place 21st-century methods of education, and not be stuck in the medieval model of tutorials and physical lectures.

We have a real opportunity to lead here and I think it is a fantastic opportunity for us. Promoting virtual education is education-for-all, not just those who can take time off for university or afford three years of tuition without working at the same time.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 26 Comments
Cara Jenkinson

Opinion: Liberal Democrats must prioritise skills development

By Cara Jenkinson | Tue 2nd December 2014 - 3:38 pm

One of the depressing facts that came out from last week’s Joseph Rowntree Foundation report on poverty is that only 1 in 5 of low paid employees have left low paid work completely ten years later.  Also in the news recently were reports of severe staffing shortages of skilled staff in several sectors including construction and health/social care, leading to major recruitment drives overseas.   There is a real problem with skills development in the UK.

There are several reasons for this.  Since the recession companies have cut back on investment, and that includes training.  The increase in outsourcing in our public services has had an impact; some private providers have good long term training programmes, whereas others take a much more short term approach, particularly if they are fighting to win government contracts on cost. Another cause is the rise in self-employment – 15% of the UK working population is now self-employed compared to 13% in 2008.  Many of these self-employed are rehired to their original organisations but without many of the benefits including a training budget.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 19 Comments
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