Skills for Work

Skills for Work courses are available for young people in Scottish secondary schools and colleges beginning with a two year pilot from 2005 to 2007. The aim of the new courses is to enable young people from S3 onwards to develop practical vocational skills and to improve their employment prospects by developing a range of employability skills.  The courses are mainly taken in further education colleges, which work in partnership with the school. Employers and training providers may also be involved.

The new courses will also widen students' opportunities for progression and prepare them for further learning and employment. 

What courses are available?

There are a number of subjects currently being piloted. Follow the links below to find downloadable resources in the NQ resource database.

2007 onwards

Thirteen Skills for Work Courses will be available to all centres in 2007-08, following the successful implementation of Pilot Courses in 2005/6. As well as the above there will be courses for:

• Engineering skills - Intermediate 1

• Hospitality - Intermediate 1

• Health and Social Care - Higher

How are courses assessed?

Courses at Intermediate 1 and 2 consist of a number of National Units. Achievement will be assessed at key points throughout the course and learners will be actively involved in both the learning and assessment processes. The assessment will involve a variety of approaches including gathering folios of evidence, personal records, activity checklists and short tests.   

To gain a course award, learners will be required to successfully complete all of the units which make up the course. In line with many vocational qualifications, these courses will not be graded and will therefore not require a final course exam.

Arrangements documents for Skills for Work subjects can be found on the Scottish Qualifications Authority website.

What support materials are there?

The Scottish Further Education Unit is developing support materials for the subject content of these courses. Some of the resources can be downloaded free from the NQ resource database. 

Employability skills

LT Scotland is developing resources to support the teaching of generic employability skills. You can find out more about the skills required by employers by visiting the employability skills page.

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