Claire McPherson, Universities Scotland Director, has written a blog discussing the future skills needed for economic growth and how universities are essential in meeting these skills needs.
Universities are not an alternative to technical and vocational education. For a huge share of Scotland’s most economically and socially important professions, they are technical and vocational education.
So when a YouGov poll published today suggests most people in Scotland support vocational education and apprenticeships, that should be read as a strong endorsement of much of what universities already do. My concern is that it won’t be.
Walk into any building site, factory, studio, laboratory, hospital, school, courtroom or office anywhere in Scotland and you’ll find graduates whose professional competence was built through university study. Engineers, nurses, teachers, architects, scientists, social workers, software developers and lawyers are all products of an education that is simultaneously academic, technical and vocational.
As James Withers concluded in his review of Scotland’s skills landscape, the long-standing distinction between academic and vocational learning is both false and damaging. Yet it continues to shape the way many people talk about education and skills.
That matters because Scotland’s economic future depends on a steady supply of highly skilled graduates. Across the economy, employers increasingly need people who can combine specialist knowledge with practical application: advanced technical capability, professional expertise, digital fluency, problem-solving and leadership. These are higher-level skills, and demand for them is growing.
The sectors expected to drive future prosperity are precisely those that rely on university-level, skilled technical and vocational education. Delivering net zero requires engineers, environmental scientists, planners and project managers. Growth in life sciences depends on researchers, laboratory scientists and healthcare professionals. Digital industries need software engineers, cyber security specialists and data analysts. Advanced manufacturing relies on engineers, technologists and innovation specialists. The same is true of health and social care, construction, food and drink, our creative industries and the wider innovation economy.
These are not jobs that fit neatly into an “academic” or “vocational” box. They require theory and practice, technical competence and professional judgement. That is exactly what universities provide.
Undergraduate degrees routinely include industry accreditation, professional standards and work-based learning as core parts of the curriculum. Universities also deliver Graduate Apprenticeships, enabling students to earn an honours degree while working and earning a salary in sectors such as engineering, digital technology and construction. This isn’t an interesting hybrid. It is vocational education in action.
The other key factor for the future of Scotland’s workforce is undoubtedly AI. One of the strongest messages coming from employers, throughout the engagement we have had this year, is that the pace of change makes it hard to predict what the impact will be on specific job roles with any accuracy. They anticipate that many existing technical skills may become obsolete every three to five years as innovation and technology shifts fundamentally. In this context, employees will need skills which give them versatility and resilience as employers will come to depend even more upon curiosity and critical thinking, relational and translational skills, the ability to see and articulate risk.
Scotland is currently engaged in an important debate about the future of tertiary education. The Future Framework for the Success and Sustainability of Scotland’s Universities is examining funding, collaboration and the role universities will play in meeting the country’s future needs. Similar conversations are taking place across the college sector.
In those debates, it can be tempting to fall back on a simple division of labour: colleges deliver skills, universities deliver knowledge. The reality is far more connected. Colleges and universities perform different roles, but they are part of the same skills ecosystem.
We can already see this in practice. Thousands of students move from college into degree study through articulation routes every year, often entering directly into the second or third year of a programme. In many disciplines, colleges and universities are not competing providers but different stages of the same learner journey.
The challenge facing Scotland is not deciding whether universities are providers of vocational education. For many of our most important professions, that question was settled long ago. The real challenge is building a tertiary education system capable of producing the volume and range of higher-level skills that a modern economy demands.
That means strengthening the connections between colleges, universities and employers through articulation, apprenticeships, professional accreditation and work-based learning. Above all, it means moving beyond a false choice between academic and vocational education.
If Scotland is serious about growing its key sectors, improving productivity and competing in the global economy, then it is time to stop treating university education and vocational education as separate ideas. For many of the professions and industries on which our future depends, they are one and the same.