News From North East July/August 2007

Inside this issue...

Click on to your chosen topic from here

Engaging Parents in Raising Attainment
Scotland is the Place
Future Skills Scotland - Labour Market Projections 2007 to 2017
Drug Treatment Services
Scottish Executive Website
Froth and Bubble
Contributions

Engaging Parents in Raising Attainment

A study from the University of Warwick looked at parental engagement and pupil achievement. The work was based on a literature review, analysis of performance data and case study visits to 30 primary and secondary schools.

Key findings from the study are:

Analysis of pupil performance data showed that there was a positive correlation between increased parental engagement, particularly amongst the hard to reach parents, and improved pupil attendance, performance and behaviour.
Parents were found to have the greatest influence on the achievement of pupils through supporting their learning at home, rather than at school.
Schools which offered bespoke forms of support for parents including literacy classes and parenting skill support were most likely to engage parents in their children's learning.
Schools faced certain barriers in engaging parents. Typical parental issues included lack of time, language barriers, poor literacy skills and the lack of ability in understanding and negotiating the school system.

Scotland is the Place

New items on the Scotland Is The Place website include:

A Polish version of the site
Welcome to Scotland for Migrant Workers available as a word document in: English and Polish
Top 10 Tips for enjoying student life in Scotland.

Future Skills Scotland - Labour Market Projections 2007 to 2017

(Extract from FSS website)

The Labour Market Projections report presents a picture of how the labour market is expected to change between 2007 and 2017. It highlights the main historical trends from the past two decades to provide a context for the projections and describes what the latest economic projections tell us about how employment will change in the future, highlighting the likely areas of growth and decline in both industries and occupations.

It is likely in Scotland’s labour market in the future, there will be:

modest growth in the number of jobs;
considerable demand for new employees to replace those who leave employment;
employment growth concentrated in public and private service industries and in higher skilled and service orientated occupations;
large number of jobs arising in service industries and managerial and professional occupations;
increasing numbers of older workers; and
increasing numbers of people obtaining higher levels of qualifications.

Drug Treatment Services

A new online Scottishdrug Directory to help drug users and their families get the treatment they need has been launched. The directory contains details of more than 220 community based and residential service offering drug treatment services throughout Scotland.

It has been funded by the Scottish Government and builds on the Scottish Drug Forum's online directory.

The new upgraded directory will be maintained by the Scottish Drugs Forum.

Scottish Executive Website

Date	Section	Publication
14/06/2007	People, Communities and Living	Supporting Sustained Entry to Work [Research Publications] The aim of this evaluation was to explore the effectiveness of two Glasgow based projects - one delivered by the Wise Group and the other by One Plus - that supported lone parents and others to move into sustained employment.
20/06/2007	Education	International Lifelong Learning Scotland's Contribution [Publication] A strategy enhance the internationalisation of Scottish post-school education.
26/06/2007	People, Communities and Living	Gypsies/Travellers in Scotland: The Twice-yearly Count - No. 11: January 2007 [Publication] Gypsies/Travellers in Scotland: The Twice-yearly Count - No. 11: January 2007.
27/06/2007	People, Communities and Living	Communication Support Needs: A Review of the Literature [Research Publications] This research reviews existing literature on the needs and experiences of people with communication support needs and highlights the implications these have for service provision.
28/06/2007	Education	Review of Scotland's Colleges: Delivering a Smarter Scotland: The Difference Scotland's Colleges Make to Learners, the Economy and Wider Society [Report] Review of Scotland's Colleges report of the Differences Colleges Make Working Group.
28/06/2007	Education	Helping You Meet the Costs of Learning: Asylum Seekers, Refugees, Migrant Workers and Non-UK EU Nationals: A Guide to Funding 2007-2008 for Practitioners Giving Advice [Publication] This leaflet gives an overview of the funding arrangements available for: asylum seekers refugees and those with leave to remain migrant workers non-UK EU nationals who wish to study a course of further or higher education in Scotland.
28/06/2007	Education	Helping you meet the cost of learning: Postgraduate Students 2007 - 2008 [Publication] This information sheet explains what support is available for Scottish postgraduate students studying in Scotland.
28/06/2007	Employment	Annual Population Survey in Scotland: A Compendium of Labour Market Statistics 2006 [Publication] Summary publication of results from the Annual Population Survey 2006, presenting analysis on the labour market, education and training. Results are provided at Scotland and sub-Scotland levels.
04/07/2007	Education	Helping You Meet the Costs of Learning: Funding for Disabled Students [Publication] This guide gives an overview of the funding available from August 2007 for disabled learners and is a useful guide for practitioners giving advice to others.
04/07/2007	Education	Helping you meet the cost of Learning: Adult Learners in Scotland [Publication] This information sheet gives an overview of the sources of funding available to adult learners who want to study in Scotland.
06/07/2007	Education	Helping You Meet the Costs of Learning: What Support is Available to Scottish Domiciled Healthcare Students Studying in Scotland 2007-2008 [Publication] This information sheet gives an overview of the sources of funding available to Scottish domiciled students studying Dentistry and Medicine, Nursing and Midwifery, and Allied Health Professions in Scotland.
06/07/2007	Education	Employing Support Workers in Higher Education: A guide for students and advisers 2007 [Publication] This booklet provides guidance about getting assistance from different types of helpers or support workers in higher education. The booklet looks at ways to arrange this support, including using support workers employed by your institution and some of the things to think about if you choose to employ your own assistant.
13/07/2007	Education	Helping you meet the costs of learning: Part-time Study 2007-2008 [Guidance] This Guide gives an overview of the funding available from August 2007 for part-time or distance-learning students, and is a useful guide to practitioners giving advice to part-time students.
13/07/2007	Education	Abolition of the Graduate Endowment Fee [Consultation] Consultation paper on the principle of abolishing the Graduate Endowment Fee for those students graduating from Scottish Higher Education from 1 April 2007 onwards.
18/07/2007	Economics and Finance	Scottish Economic Statistics 2007 [Publication]This annual compendium publication draws together a record of previously published data covering the past 12 months relating to the Scottish economy.
30/07/2007	Education	Young people's awareness and experience of Educational Maintenance Allowances (EMAs) and their impact on choices and pathways - Research Findings [Research Findings] The aim of the research was to gather evidence of young people's awareness and experience of the EMA, to assess the EMA's impact on young people's choices and pathways, and to assess if EMAs help to prevent young people from becoming NEET.
03/08/2007	Education	Evaluation of Making The Difference Leaflets [Publication] Research Report on the evaluation of Making the Difference series of leaflets for parents, which are aimed at highlighting the difference parents can and do make to their children's learning. Accompanies summary report Insight 37.
07/08/2007	Information and Communication	NHS Careers Campaign 2005-07: Evaluation Report [Research Publications] This report provides an evaluation of the effectiveness of the 2006 and 2007 phases of the NHS Careers campaign.

Froth and Bubble

Scottish Corpus of Texts and Speech

Extract from SCOTS Project website…

"The SCOTS project provides a large electronic corpus of both written and spoken texts for the languages of Scotland. It has been online since November 2004, and, after regular updates and additions, it reached a total of 4 million words of text in May 2007. It is hoped that SCOTS will allow those interested in Scotland's linguistic diversity, and in Scottish culture and identity, to investigate the languages of Scotland in new ways, and address the gap which presently exists in our knowledge of these. It will also preserve information on these languages for future generations."

John Murray Archive

Extract from The John Murray Archive website..

"John Murray published some of the greatest names in 19th century literature, including Jane Austen and Lord Byron. When the firm took over publishers Smith, Elder and Company, even more great writers were brought into the Archive. These include Charlotte Bronte and Arthur Conan Doyle."

"The Archive contains over 150,000 items, representing a Who's Who of men and women writing in the fields of literature, science, politics, travel and exploration."

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