Skills for Work courses are available for young people in Scottish secondary schools and colleges. The aim of the 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.
Skills for Work courses are different from other vocational provision because they focus on generic employability skills needed for success in the workplace. The courses offer opportunities for learners to acquire these critical generic employability skills through a variety of practical experiences that are linked to a particular vocational area such as construction, hairdressing, hospitality, etc.
The courses also widen students' opportunities for progression and prepare them for further learning and employment.
There are a number of subjects currently available. Follow the links below to find downloadable resources in the NQ resource database.
| Course | Level |
|---|---|
| Beauty | Higher |
| Construction and Engineering | Access 3 |
| Construction Crafts | Intermediate 1 |
| Construction Crafts | Intermediate 2 |
| Creative Digital Media | Intermediate 1 |
| Early Education and Childcare | Intermediate 1 |
| Early Education and Childcare | Intermediate 2 |
| Energy | Intermediate 2 |
| Engineering Skills | Intermediate 1 |
| Engineering Skills | Intermediate 2 |
| Financial Services | Intermediate 2 |
| Hairdressing | Intermediate 1 |
| Health and Social Care | Higher |
| Health Sector | Intermediate 1 |
| Health Sector | Intermediate 2 |
| Hospitality | Intermediate 1 |
| Hospitality | Intermediate 2 |
| Laboratory Science | Intermediate 2 |
| Retailing | Intermediate 2 |
| Sport and Recreation | Intermediate 1 |
| Sport and Recreation | Intermediate 2 |
| Practical Experiences: Construction and Engineering | Access 3 |
| Rural Skills | Intermediate 1 |
| Uniformed and Emergency Services | Intermediate 1 |
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.
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.
Education 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.
Discover and explore a variety of job roles in a range of working environments from your computer.
This report from SQA provides a review of the first year of the pilot introduction of Skills for Work Courses.
This pack contains information on the thirteen Skills for Work Courses from the Scottish Qualifications Authority.
Find out more about the labour market in Scotland. See the Futureskills report on 'Scottish School Leavers' Understanding of Work'.
See section 3.18 on partnerships between schools and colleges to deliver vocational skills to school students.
See the HMIE report on cross-sectoral provision of vocational education for Scotland's young people.
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