PRODUCTIVITY, and how to boost it, has prompted much head-scratching in these difficult economic times.
Hugh Aitken, presenting CBI Scotland’s productivity analysis, declares: “Against a backdrop of EU negotiations and new revenue-raising powers for the Scottish Parliament, there has never been a more important time to focus on improving productivity across Scotland.”
Recently, Scotland has enjoyed greater productivity growth than the UK as a whole but there is more to be done.
Educational attainment is one key focus of the report. The CBI declares school-age education is the “biggest long-term driver of economic growth”. And it claims there is a “need to improve performance in our schools”.
Perhaps more constructively, given its field of expertise, it flags the importance of businesses providing work placements and careers advice and it is here, rather than in classrooms, that businesses can make a difference. There is already a great deal being done in Scotland on this front.
The CBI notes a “link between the proportion of firms offering work experience placements and productivity in a local area”.
It meanwhile calculates that there is potential to make annual Scottish economic output £25 billion greater than it would be otherwise by 2024 by improving productivity, while flagging the challenges in realising such a dream.
The CBI cites the gap between the £24.50 of gross value added (GVA) economic output per hour worked in the Shetland Islands in 2014 and the £36.36 for Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire. Edinburgh City recorded £34.39 of GVA per hour, with Glasgow City on £28.68. But, as the CBI notes, cities have big advantages when it comes to productivity. Shetland faces big challenges, including geography and weather.
Mr Aitken is right to flag the importance to Scotland of maximising productivity and growth to boost its public finances. The problem is that there are no easy answers.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel