Clusters and Training Policy

Abstract

Training policy is a responsibility of the Scottish Parliament, principally through the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning, and the Scottish Executive Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department. Training policy is often a concomitant feature of economic development. Governmental economic development policies tend to emerge through more than one source, such as the Treasury, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department for Education and Employment. Examples which come to mind are the Competitiveness White Papers, Welfare to Work and New Deal programmes, and the National Training Organisations (NTO) structure. The Scottish Executive therefore has the task of securing synergy at the point where United Kingdom government policy on such matters interfaces with Scotland government policy. Two key agencies assist in this process, Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Highlands and Islands Enterprise; they draw up economic development and training policies and deliver these through their respective networks of local enterprise companies (LECs). Local authorities are also important organisations in economic development policy and implementation. Securing the delivery of training policy also involves schools, colleges of further education, higher education institutions, private and voluntary sector training providers, employers and awarding bodies. So this is the super-structure which cluster developers have to navigate through and engage with in order to help make training policy work for clusters. Conversely it is also a super-structure which could learn from particular training policies which clusters might see fit to develop in order to contribute to their success.