The Fresh Talent Initiative was a
Scottish Government policy framework to encourage people to settle in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...
. The initiative was launched in February 2004 by then
First Minister,
Jack McConnell
Jack Wilson McConnell, Baron McConnell of Glenscorrodale, (born 30 June 1960) is a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 2001 to 2007. McConnell served as the Minister fo ...
as a way of countering the 'biggest challenge facing Scotland' of its falling population.
Since immigration is a matter reserved to the UK parliament in the legislation that established the
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament ( gd, PĂ rlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holy ...
in 1999 (the Scotland Act 1998), agreement had to be obtained from the
Home Office for a key part of the initiative: to allow overseas graduates from
Scottish universities, who express the intention of living and working in Scotland, to stay on for two years following graduation to seek employment. The Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland Scheme was up and running by summer 2005, applying to those who graduated that year.
Opposition towards the scheme was voiced by some
English universities which felt that the scheme gave Scottish universities a competitive advantage in terms of attracting students from overseas.
The Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland Scheme was subsumed into the UK immigration system on 29 June 2008 when the UK government brought in a new
points based immigration scheme.
Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland
ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk, accessed 5 November 2008
See also
*Demographics of Scotland
The demography of Scotland includes all aspects of population, past and present, in the area that is now Scotland. Scotland has a population of 5,463,300, as of 2019. The population growth rate in 2011 was estimated as 0.6% per annum accordin ...
* New Scots
* TalentScotland
References
{{reflist
Higher education organisations based in the United Kingdom
New Scots