Employer Skills Survey 2024 - Scotland

A correction was published on 23 January 2026. ​​​Amendments have been made to PDF pages 33 and 70/71 and to background tables 36 and 109. The HTML, PDF and Excel have been updated to reflect these changes. The correction is because of changes to the summary codes used for: (1) the reasons for not providing work placements or inspiration activities and (2) the reasons for not intending to start apprenticeships.

The following minor changes were made:

• Recruitment: Work placements (PDF page 33): Two figures have now changed (from 71% to 72%, and 43% to 46%) and the corrected paragraph now reads "Smaller employers were more likely to cite structural issues as the main reason for not providing work inspiration activities (72% for those with 2 to 4 employees, compared to 46% of those with 25 or more employees). "  
• Apprenticeships: Future apprenticeship plans (PDF page 71/72): Three figures have now changed (from "one in seven" to "one in six", 15% to 16%, and 13% to 14%) and the corrected paragraph now reads "Around one in six employers hoped to use them to nurture talent (16%), including 7% who hoped to use them to upskill current staff, while 14% described more altruistic motivations around offering young people a chance at employment.

A correction was published on 18 June 2026. Amendments have been made to PDF and to background tables 110 and 111. The HTML, PDF and Excel have been updated to reflect the changes. The corrections follow Quality Assurance of the findings after issues related to the High Performance Working (HPW) base sizes were identified. A full review was undertaken of all Scotland outputs following a review of the UK ESS research report.

The following minor changes were made:

• Skill-shortage vacancies: Incidence of skill-shortage vacancies (PDF page 19): a typographical error has been corrected, removing “employer in the of Public Administration sector” so that the sentence now reads “Incidence of SSVs was least common among employers in the Public Administration sector (2%).”
• Skill-shortage vacancies: Technical and practical skills lacking among applicants (PDF page 22): minor ranking error in chart corrected. Amended so that Basic IT skills is now above Basic numerical skills. Results were the same when rounded to whole percentages, but should be in the amended order based on unrounded results.
• The internal skills challenge: Technical and practical skills lacking among staff with skills gaps (PDF page 43): minor ranking errors in the chart. Figures remain unchanged but previously the order of three codes was: Solving complex problems; Knowledge of how the organisation works; and Knowledge of the organisation's products and services. It has now been corrected to: Knowledge of the organisation's products and services; Solving complex problems; and Knowledge of how the organisation works. While figures also remain unchanged, these have now been amended so that Manual dexterity is now above Basic numerical skills. Results were the same when rounded to whole percentages, but should be in the amended order based on unrounded results.
• The internal skills challenge: Under-use of skills and qualifications (PDF page 47): a minor change to the phrasing around the proportion of employers with under-utilised staff being similar across size bands, to clarify that "employers with between 25 and 49 staff were slightly less likely to have under-utilised employees (28% vs. 33% overall)". A second minor change to the phrasing of a finding around Construction employers. Previously the finding was that “Construction employers were the least likely to have under-utilised staff (24%)”. In fact, other sectors had lower proportions, but none that were statistically significant compared to the overall proportion, and so the finding has been reframed as: “Construction employers were less likely than average to have under-utilised staff (24%).”
• Training and Workforce Development: Types of training provided (PDF page 61): minor ranking error in chart corrected. Amended so that Management training is now above Supervisory training. Results were the same when rounded to whole percentages, but should be in the amended order based on unrounded results.
• Training and Workforce Development: Investment in training (PDF page 66): change to shorthand – removing “bn” and replacing with “billion”. The figures are unchanged.
• Apprenticeships: Introduction (PDF page 68): phrasing improved for clarity to make clear that the 10% of employers who currently have apprentices are also included within the 16% of all employers offering apprenticeships. This has been amended to: “For context, the 2024 survey found that around one in six (16%) Scottish employers offered apprenticeships, including 10% who currently had apprentices; both results are the same as in 2022.”
• High Performance Working (HPW) practices: throughout (PDF pages 73 to 75) base sizes used in statistical analysis were incorrect. Some labelling has been updated for clarity and some significant differences that were previously reported are no longer significant. This includes:
  • (PDF page 73) Removing: “those who practice flexible working has decreased from 37% to 33%”, as this is no longer significant.
  • (PDF page 74) Adding  “(Module D)” in the base label so that it reads: “All sites in Scotland (Module D) (2024: 1,246; 2022: 1,213).”
  • (PDF page 74) The following line has been amended for clarity: “The proportion of these sites adopting HPW practices has decreased between 51% in 2022 and 24% in 2024.” , changed to: “The proportion of these sites adopting HPW practices has decreased from 51% in 2022 to 24% in 2024.”
  • (PDF page 75) Public Administration (17%), Information and Communications (16%) data was not statistically significant. Finding changed from: “In line with 2022, by sector, employers in Public Administration (17%), Information and Communications (16%) and Health and Social Work (16%)  were more likely to be HPW employers compared to other sectors” to “In line with 2022, by sector, employers in Health and Social Work (16%) were more likely to be HPW employers compared to other sectors”.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Net Zero: Use of AI in the last 12 months (PDF page 79): Additional commentary has been added to clarify the subset of employers who answered the question. Finding changed from:
  • Original: “Most sites who used AI had started in the last 12 months (67%). Employers were asked if they were likely to adopt AI. Employers with 100 or more employees were more likely to adopt AI (14%), compared to the average (8%).”
  • Updated: “Most sites who used AI had started in the last 12 months (67%). Employers who were not currently using AI were asked if they were likely to adopt AI. Employers with 100 or more employees were more likely to be planning to adopt AI (14%), compared to the average (8%).”
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Net Zero: Net Zero strategy (PDF page 80): Commentary has been adapted to convey that small businesses were both more likely not to be planning to become Net Zero and to already be at Net Zero. Finding clarified as below:
  • Original: “Overall, 16% of sites already had a Net Zero strategy in place. Employers with 100 or more employees were most likely to have a strategy in place (35%). A small proportion of sites reported already being at Net Zero (3%).  Around half (46%) had no plans to become Net Zero; this was more likely among smaller employers with 2 to 4 employees (53%) and those in the Construction sector (56%).”
  • Updated: “Overall, 16% of sites already had a Net Zero strategy in place. Employers with 100 or more employees were most likely to have a strategy in place (35%). In addition, a small proportion of sites reported already being at Net Zero (3%). This was slightly more likely for the smaller employers with 2 to 4 employees (4%). Around half of sites (46%) had no plans to become Net Zero; this was also more likely among smaller employers with 2 to 4 employees (53%), as well as those in the Construction sector (56%).”