Question reference: S6W-24315
- Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 4 January 2024
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Current status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 22 January 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that young people learn life skills and financial literacy while at school.
Answer
Curriculum for Excellence seeks to provide our young people with the knowledge, attitudes and skills to succeed as underpinned by its four capacities: successful learners; confident individuals; responsible citizens and effective contributors. Financial literacy and the life skills feature in learning about numeracy and maths, business studies and personal and social education.
Education Scotland provides support to schools through curriculum guidance, in particular the “ Building the Curriculum 4 ” publication which is relevant to literacy, numeracy and associated thinking skills; skills for health and wellbeing, including personal learning planning, career management skills, working with others, leadership and physical co-ordination and movement skills; and skills for enterprise and employability. Schools can also access the Skills for Development Framework from the Scottish Qualifications Authority relevant to their senior phase qualifications.
In the senior phase, financial literacy features in qualifications such as SCQF levels 4 & 5 Personal Finance awards and the Applications of Mathematics qualifications, which provides advanced learning in a range of core and practical maths skills; including finance. Education Scotland also provide a range of further professional learning resources on financial literacy. A range of organisations offer further support to schools to reinforce and enhance learning in financial education including HMRC, Barclays Lifeskills, NatWest MoneySense and the Young Enterprise ‘My Money’ Talks.
In relation to skills for life and work, examples of relevant senior phase qualifications and awards include: the SafeCert SCQF Level 6 Award in Emergency First Aid at Work; Prince's Trust SCQF Awards and certificates in Personal Development and Employability Skills; Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and Youth Scotland Dynamic Youth Awards. These are in addition to a range of SQA technical and vocational qualifications. Total attainment for SQA Skills for Work, SQA Awards, National Certificates and National Progression Awards in 2023 was 72,120 passes, up 12.3% from 64,240 in 2022, the highest number on record.