Better Educated Workforce Could Boost Scotland's Economy By £2 Billion
Researchers Claim Scotland's Economy Could Be Boosted By £2 Billion If Workforce Were Better Educated.
Scotland could boost its economy by £2 billion with a better educated and qualified workforce, Holyrood researchers have estimated.
Highly qualified workers generally contribute more money to the economy in taxes and production than those with no qualifications.
Raising the economic activity of people with no qualifications to the level of qualified people would boost Scotland's GDP by 1.4% and tax income by 1.2% according to the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Spice).
This would add an extra £2 billion to the economy and generate an additional £623 million in taxes, Spice said. The research was requested by Scottish Labour to demonstrate the value that could be added to Scotland's economy under its plan to raise income tax by 1p to invest in education. Leader Kezia Dugdale is due to visit the apprentice centre and manufacturing area of electronics firm Thales UK in Glasgow.
She said: The most important investment any government can make is in its people. Today we can show how much that investment will pay off - literally billions more added to our economy and hundreds of millions more generated by tax receipts by a workforce with the skills ready to grab the jobs of the future.The SNP budget this week will mean hundreds of millions of cuts to schools and local services across the country.
That will be devastating for the poorest families in Scotland, but it will short-change the future of our country. These are damaging cuts. We can make a different, fairer choice. Faced with the choice of cuts that will undermine our future and choke off our potential or using the powers of the Scottish Parliament, I choose to use the powers of the Scottish Parliament.
Setting the Scottish rate of income tax one penny higher than George Osborne would let us stop the cuts and invest in the potential of every person in Scotland.''