New Futures Four Nations - Scotland briefing paper - About L&W and our New Futures pilots

What is career change and why is it important? Put simply, career change is a change in the broad industrial or occupational sector, or a change to the nature of one’s work. [...] The 2011 census data shows that Scotland has 2.5 million people in work and the National Records of Scotland have projected a further fall in the working age population from 64.9% in 2020 to 64.4% by 2045. [...] Figure 1 shows the percentage of people in work who change jobs by nation and region for time periods before the Covid-19 pandemic, during the pandemic and a year after.2 It shows the proportion of people staying in the same sector against the proportion moving to a different sector. [...] Looking forward, Figure 2 shows the projected employment change in Scotland per year, by industry sector to the year 2035.3 Our analysis of the projections shows that Scotland is expected to have the highest percentage growth in health and social work employment compared to any other nation or region in the UK. [...] Moving forward The recent change in First Minister has resulted in a new government and a refreshed ministerial focus on employability in Scotland, with a new Employment minister, a new Economy Cabinet Secretary and an expressed desire to “deliver for Scotland and its people”.