Employer Skills Survey 2024 - Scotland

National Occupational Standards (NOS)

National Occupational Standards (NOS) describe the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to do a particular job to a nationally recognised level of competence.

NOS can be used by awarding bodies which can create qualifications to train individuals for a job, to create job descriptions and by individuals who can research different types of jobs and match their skills and experience to those needed.

In ESS 2024, employers in Scotland were asked about their awareness and use of NOS.

Awareness of NOS

Overall, nearly half of Scottish employers (48%) had some awareness of NOS. This included one in five (20%) being aware and having some knowledge of what they are, 8% agreeing they have ‘good knowledge of what they are’, and just over a fifth who were aware but did not know what they are (21%). Overall, half of employers in Scotland had not heard of NOS (50%).

It was more likely for large sites with 100 or more employees to have any awareness of NOS (62%) compared to smaller sites (43% of those with 2 to 4 employees). Similarly, 14% of large sites with 100 or more employees deemed themselves to have good knowledge of NOS, compared to the average (8%).

In contrast, smaller sites with 2 to 4 employees were more likely to not have heard of NOS (55%) when compared to sites with 5 or more employees (44%).

Use of NOS

Most employers (81%) had not used NOS, with 17% using NOS in some way. NOS was most commonly used to develop training plans to meet the employer’s needs (13%) and for staff appraisals or performance management (10%).

By site size, those with 2 to 4 employees were most likely to have not used NOS (84%), compared to those who employed 100 or more employees (71%). In addition, 16% of larger sites with 100 or more employees were more likely to have used NOS in 4 or more ways.

As shown in Figure 27, by sector, use of NOS was most common among sites in the Health and Social Work (37%) and Education (29%) sectors.

As shown in Figure 27, by sector, use of NOS was most common among sites in the Health and Social Work (37%) and Education (29%) sectors.

Figure 27: Use of National Occupational Standards by sector

Base: All sites in Scotland (2024 (Module D): 1,246). Where base sizes are under 30 within a sector, this data has not been charted.