Welcome to the April edition of the Employability in Scotland e-bulletin.

I hope you all enjoyed some time off over the recent holiday weekend – Spring has definitely sprung!

Of course, this Spring is particularly notable as it gives us the opportunity to see Scotland’s newly devolved employment support services grow and develop. As you know, this is the first month of operation for Work First Scotland and Work Able Scotland – and after such a significant period of preparation by everyone involved, it is really wonderful to see these services delivering the continuity of support they are designed to.

Work is continuing on the development of the 2018 service, Fair Start Scotland. The two contract notices published in March remain live on the Public Contracts Scotland website, inviting organisations in nine geographical contract areas that wish to bid to deliver Fair Start Scotland, to develop their proposals in line with the requirements set out.

The closing date for offers from service providers to deliver these services in 8 of the 9 geographic areas is 24 May 2017 – You can find full details here

The closing date for offers to deliver the service in the remaining geographic area – West (covering East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire which has been reserved for supported businesses) is 31 May 2017 – You can find full details here

With new services now being delivered and with preparation for Fair Start Scotland well underway, we have taken the opportunity to update and refresh the Employability in Scotland website. There is now a new section on Scotland’s Devolved Employment Services which has lots of information on both 2017 and 2018 services, including FAQ’s. This section will be regularly updated, so you might want to save to your favourites! – you can access these pages from here.

In addition the team recently had a good discussion with TSEF on employability and City Deals – It’s always helpful hear a range of perspectives and we appreciate members taking the time meet with us.

In other news, the Scottish Government is building upon its initial funding to Equate Scotland of up to £50,000 to support women back into the workplace, on 26 April the Minister for Employability and Training announced additional funding of £200,000 to widen the initiative across a range of industrial sectors – see here for more info.

Finally, don’t forget to keep in touch – and for those of you attending the NDG on 9th May, we’ll look forward to seeing you there. As always, please send us your case studies, examples of good practice and your contributions for the Employability in Scotland website and e-bulletin.

Best wishes

Joanne

As many as 4,800 people with health conditions and disabilities will receive help to get into work without the threat of sanctions in the first year of new Scottish employment services.

Evidence suggests that many women struggle to return to work after a career break  due to factors such as a lack of access to flexible working to support care commitments.  Their time away from the workplace often leads to them experiencing a loss of confidence and lacking relevant skills.

New figures show Scotland's unemployment levels fell by 15,000 over the most recent quarter to 123,000, with the rate down 0.5 percentage points to 4.5%.

Scotland's new social security agency will put people before profits, with no private companies carrying out benefit assessments.

The number of workers in Scotland employed in the low carbon and ‎renewables sector has risen to 58,500 in 2015 - up from an indicative 43,500 employed in 2014.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will visit a digital skills academy in New York that is getting young people into employment.

The figures show that the proportion of young people entering higher education at college or university directly from school has increased faster among those from the most deprived areas in Scotland when compared to the least deprived.

More pupils across Scotland will be able to benefit from work-based learning as Foundation Apprenticeship places continue to expand with nearly 2,000 on offer this year. The number of Foundation Apprentices has grown across Scotland with the work-based learning qualification now on offer to school pupils in over 110 schools.

Funding of £500,000 to address long standing barriers in accessing the labour market has been announced by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

The two years project which started on 1 April will be launched at an event in in Dundee on 4 May.  It aims to transform the lives of nearly 2,000 people in the city by offering specialist support to help them take positive steps towards work, increase job prospects and improve wellbeing.

Minister for Employability and Training Jamie Hepburn writes ahead of digital skills conference

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You can view all current consultations from the Scottish Government online.