As SCQF Week 2026 draws to a close, James Withers looks ahead to the next 25 years of the SCQF. Reflecting on his independent review of Scotland’s skills system, he considers how the Framework could help transform how Scotland thinks and talks about learning.
I have a confession to make. When I started my independent review of Scotland’s skills system in 2022, I had heard of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework. But I didn’t know it.
By the time I finished, that had changed completely. It has left one of the most indelible marks on my thinking about the future of our education and skills system.
My review argued that Scotland needs a revolution in how we think about learning. A few years on, I believe that more strongly than ever (and sit increasingly concerned that the system is far more adept at thwarting reform than driving it).
I am equally convinced that one of the most powerful tools for delivering that revolution has been sitting in front of us all along: the SCQF.
Parity of esteem
We talk endlessly about “parity of esteem”. We tell young people there is “no wrong path”. These are comforting phrases. But they don’t describe the reality of life for many learners.
Of course there has been progress. Yet, we still instinctively talk about academic and vocational routes as though they are different species.
Society continues to attach different status to different institutions and qualifications.
We celebrate one young person heading to university while too often treating every other route to learning as a consolation prize. It is a toxic trait in our system.
And, in a country with a shrinking working age population, it risks half of our young people leaving school believing they have failed before their lives have even begun. Can you imagine something more damaging to the future of a country?
Where the SCQF matters
Different pathways should be understood as exactly that: different. Not better. Not worse. Just different.
That requires more than another campaign about parity of esteem. It requires radical cultural change. And this is where the SCQF matters.
At its simplest, the Framework gives us a common language for learning. It allows us to understand and compare learning wherever it happens – at school, college, university, in the workplace, in this country or elsewhere.
That sounds technical. It is actually radical. Because once you look at learning through that lens, the myriad of labels we have accumulated over decades for different qualifications start to look archaic, odd and – at worst – highly damaging.
Higher. National Certificate. National Progression Award. Skills for Work. Foundation Apprenticeship. Modern Apprenticeship. We have built a thicket of names which learners, parents and employers are expected to navigate – and then we wonder why different routes acquire different status.
What if, instead, we started with the level of learning?
The SCQF as the ‘organising spine’
In my review, I called for Scotland to comprehensively embrace the SCQF and adapt our language to describe qualifications according to their place on the Framework. I argued that doing so would help learners, parents, employers and providers better understand the value of different qualifications and the journeys they open up.
I would go further now. I want the SCQF to become the organising spine of how Scotland thinks and talks about learning.
Imagine a system where a young person talks about achieving Level 6 English, Level 6 Software Development or Level 6 Construction, rather than one being a “Higher”, the other “Foundation” and another just an “Award”. They are all the same level of learning complexity achieved. They may involve different types of learning and assessment. Good. They should. But different is not inferior.
Twenty-five years after its creation, the SCQF should not simply be celebrated for what it has achieved. It should be unleashed for what comes next.
Scotland does not need another slogan telling learners there is no wrong path.
We need to build a system and language that proves it. The SCQF is the foundation stone.
James Withers is an independent consultant and former Chief Executive of Scotland Food & Drink and NFU Scotland. In 2022, James was appointed Independent Advisor to the Scottish Government’s Review of the Skills Delivery Landscape. His 2023 report, Fit for the Future, set out recommendations for transforming Scotland’s post-school education and skills system.