News From North East September/October 2006

Inside this issue...

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NHS Dental Bursary Scheme
The Scottish Labour Market 2006
Clearing Update from UCAS
Scottish Executive Website
Froth and Bubble
Contributions

NHS Dental Bursary Scheme

NHS Scotland National Education Services (NES) and the Scottish Executive Health Department (SEHD) have introduced a new Dental Bursary Scheme for all students studying a Dentistry (BDS) degree at Dundee and Glasgow University from the 2006-2007 session.

SAAS are responsible for administering this scheme, which will be separate to any funding they currently provide to Scottish domiciled students. This £4,000 per year bursary is open to anyone studying Dentistry in Scotland who is entering year 2, 3, 4 or 5 of their course, and who can commit to the required retention period with NHS Scotland.

Students who receive this bursary have to sign up for a maximum 5 year retention period (or equivalent part-time period) to work for NHS Scotland in Dentistry after they graduate. The retention period will vary depending on the number of years each student claims the bursary, as shown in the table below.

No of years bursary claimed	Amount of bursary claimed	Length of retention period
4	£16,000	5 years
3	£12,000	4 years
2	£8,000	3 years
1	£4,000	2 years

The student will have to repay the bursary for the given year if they withdraw from their course or repay some/or all of the bursary if they come out of the NHS before the end of their retention period.

Before receiving any bursary, each student will have to complete a contract and an application form, which will be available from the university.

For further information about the new Dental Bursary, Tel: 0131 244 4519, Email: SAASNHSDentalBursaries@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

The Scottish Labour Market 2006

Extract from FSS website…..

Scotland’s Labour Market

Scotland’s labour market works well for many people and in many places, but for a significant minority of people and places it does not.
Scotland’s education and training system produces labour of high quality when compared internationally and which meets most employers’ needs most of the time.
Particular areas where the labour market does not work so well are around very small firms, growing businesses and those at the lower end of the occupational scale.

Scotland’s Population and the Supply of Labour.

Scotland’s population is rising. The size of the workforce will be broadly static over the foreseeable future. The main issue will be around the age structure of the workforce, with a greater proportion in the older age groups.
There are some 300,000 people in Scotland who say that they would work if there was a suitable job available. Scotland will have sufficient people to meet any foreseeable upturn in the demand for labour.

The Demand for Labour and the Views of Employers

Attracting skilled staff is a middle-ranking challenge for Scottish employers.
Most Scottish employers invest in training for their staff. They are mainly satisfied with the training supplied by colleges and private providers.
EU enlargement has broadened the labour pool from which Scottish employers can draw. The impact on the labour market has been moderate, but broadly positive. Migrant workers from recent accession states are employed generally in low-paid, low-skilled work.
The recent increase in graduate numbers has been what Scotland’s economy needed. Graduates have traditionally earned more, on average, than non-graduates. This remains true today, even with the large increase in graduate numbers.

The Labour Market in the Future

There will be modest growth in the number of jobs to 2014.
There will be considerable opportunities in all sectors and occupations as existing workers retire, migrate or leave the workforce for other reasons.
Employment in the service sector will continue to increase, alongside continued decline in primary and manufacturing jobs, albeit at a slower rate than in the past.
There will be an increase in the number of jobs which require higher-level skills. There will also be a smaller increase in sales and customer service and personal service occupations.
Scotland’s workforce will be increasingly better-qualified as younger workers with better qualifications enter the labour market and older workers with fewer qualifications leave it.

Read the The Scottish Labour Market 2006.

Clearing Update from UCAS
(At 13 September 2006)

Latest UCAS figures show that out of 496,034 applicants, 372,189 (75.0%) have had their places successfully confirmed at university or college in comparison with 387,662 (75.8%) at the same point last year - a fall of 15,473. In 2004 the number of accepted applicants at this point was 358,229 - marking a 3.9% rise between 2004 and 2006.

Of the total figure, 30,607 accepted applicants have found a place through Clearing in comparison with 29,673 at the same point last year. This means that 934 more applicants have been successful through Clearing so far, which represents a 3.1% increase.

To date, acceptances of Welsh applicants to Welsh institutions are up by 8.6% from 9,808 to 10,652. Acceptances of English applicants to Scottish institutions are down by 14.4% from 4,266 to 3,650 while acceptances of Scottish applicants to Scottish institutions are down by 2.3% from 24,596 to 24,019.

EU acceptances (excluding the UK and the Republic of Ireland) are up by 9.5% from 13,401 to 14,674. The countries that acceded to the EU on 1 May 2004 show a 31.5% increase in acceptances. The largest percentage increase is for Latvia, from 161 to 274 acceptances, or 70.2% - however this percentage increase should be considered in the context of the relatively small numbers involved.

China continues to be the overseas country with the most accepted applicants, down 7.7% from 4,181 to 3,860. Hong Kong, France, India, Singapore and the US are all showing rises in the number of accepted applicants at this point.

Law by area has the most accepted applicants at degree level with 14,414, down 1.9% followed by Design studies with 13,222, down 9.6% and Psychology with 12,683, down 5.1%.

The UCAS website carries student finance information on variable fees, bursaries, scholarships and grants for applicants wanting to find out what support is available to them.

For more detailed information visit .UCAS News Releases.

Scottish Executive Website

Date	Section	Publication
18/08/2006	Education	Helping You Meet the Costs of Learning: Funding for Disabled Students 2006 - 2007 [Guidance] Funding Guide for disabled learners
18/08/2006	Education	Helping You Meet the Cost of Learning, Asylum Seekers, Refugees, Migrant Workers and EU Nationals 2006 - 2007 [Guidance] Guidance on funding
21/07/2006	Education	Learning For Our Future: Scotland's First Action Plan for the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development [Publication] The first wave of actions taken by the Scottish Executive over the next five years in support of the global programme to integrate the principles, values and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education - the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
25/08/2006	Education	Insight 32: The Future Delivery of Advice and Information Services for Additional Support Needs in Scotland [Publication] Report addressing the future of the national advice and information service for additional support needs in Scotland in the light of recent legislative changes
25/08/2006	Education	Evaluation of Enquire, The Scottish Advice Service for Additional Support for Learning: Report 1 [Publication] Report presenting the findings from an evaluation of the services provided by Enquire, the national advice service for additional support for learning in Scotland
28/08/2006	Education	Race Equality Impact Assessment [Publication] A Race Equality Impact Assessment on Promoting Better Parental Involvement in Education
30/08/2006	Education	Entitlement to Learning Scoping Study - Research Findings [Research Finding] This study reports the findings of a scoping study into learning entitlement. The study focussed on small groups of young care leavers and young people not in education, training and employment as well as those who influence them. The research explored stakeholder views of learning entitlement and attitudes towards post compulsory education in order to explore whether a system of learning entitlement would be sufficient to encourage educational re-engagement of the groups concerned
31/08/2006	Health & Nutrition	Modernising Nursing Careers: Setting the Direction [Publication] Modernising Nursing Careers
12/09/2006	Education	Guidance on the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006 [Publication] Guidance for education authorities, Parent Councils and others on the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006
20/09/2006	Education	SQA Examination Results in Scottish Schools: 2005/06 [Publication] National and Authority level information on the cumulative attainment of National Qualifications by all pupils in publicly funded secondary schools

Froth and Bubble

In the site Hyper History Online “A novel synchronoptic concept depicts a full panorama of history in such a way that it will appeal to a cultivated public at large.”

Luckily for our ‘cultivated’ readership, the site explains what synchrowotsit means.

Although we are still a long way from Christmas, this one was too good to keep - Attack of the Sprouts
(Thanks to Gail our regular, and cultivated, reader in Fife)

Contributions

If you would like to contribute an item to the newsletter we would be delighted to hear from you. Contributions can be emailed to info.ne@careers-scotland.org.uk or faxed to 01592 623199