Supporting Scotland's Employers

Skills Development Scotland works directly with employers across Scotland, providing trusted advice that helps employers invest in existing skills, develop new talent using equal and inclusive recruitment, and get the right products to grow their business.

Through our partnerships with local and sectoral representative bodies, such as Industry Leadership Groups, we seek to better understand the current and future skills demand of Scotland’s employers and economy.

This understanding also contributes to the intelligence base and helps provide clear direction for skills investment in Scotland, ensuring better alignment of supply and demand.

We also work with employers on an individual basis, supporting them to:

• Understand, engage with and create work based learning opportunities
• Understand the skills they require to achieve their ambitions
• Consider how they can meet those needs through work based learning, and other workforce development, as well as recruitment
• Build and maintain fair, equal and inclusive workplaces that attract and retain talent from across all of Scotland's communities.

In line with recommendations from the Commission for Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce (DYW), we also work with the 19 current DYW regional groups either as board members, or through regular meetings with their Chair or Programme Director. These are employer-led groups set up to provide leadership and a point of contact between employers and education.