DEBBIE MURRAY: Important role for work-based learning to fill skills gap

View from the board by Debbie Murray

Much of the focus of discussion around skills and training is, at present, rightly focused on the difficulties that businesses across the north Highlands are facing in recruiting and retaining staff. Both in my role as principal of North Highland College UHI, and as a board member of the chamber, I am actively working to help businesses solve this vital challenge.

I believe it is worth looking beyond the immediate challenges, however, and considering the tremendous potential for growth in apprenticeships and work-based learning over the years to come. This is not just about delivering more of the same, but about delivering these programmes in new and exciting ways which suit the needs of learner and business alike.

The growth in digital pedagogy, for example, allows us to support learning from the workplace, meaning an employee can undertake as short or long a vocational qualification as they need whilst taking minimum time away from the workplace, if at all.

This is particularly important both as businesses bring on young people – who are increasingly choosing to enter employment rather than education – and as they work to upskill and reskill staff to meet new opportunities. The college’s ongoing work supported by the Energy Skills Partnership to deliver in-work training to engineering firms on the skills needed in the renewable energy sector is a great practical example of this.

Importantly, as part of UHI, North Highland College can offer local learners access to a wealth of opportunities across the whole of the Highlands and Islands, and there is a real potential to deliver targeted vocational learning in a way that simply isn’t possible through more traditional courses.

Whatever challenges and opportunities the future holds, the chamber and college will continue to work together to ensure that businesses across the region have access to the skills they need.

• Debbie Murray is principal and CEO at North Highland College UHI.

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