Learning and skills

The Scottish Rural Leadership Programme for 2024-25 has been launched with the theme of ‘Transforming Scotland's Rural Economy’.

The Programme is led by Scottish Enterprise, in partnership with Highland and Islands Enterprise and the South of Scotland Enterprise and will be delivered by Elevator.

The Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) latest briefing covers the subject of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill.

Key areas covered include:

How do you think research about mental health and wellbeing in rural areas should be done? What should the priorities be? How should communities be involved in this process? And what would make it feel fair, meaningful and relevant? 

Farmers and land managers in the central belt, who are thinking of planting trees but don’t know where to begin, are now being offered free woodland assessments from Scottish Forestry.

The offer applies to farmers in the central belt from Ayrshire, Inverclyde, Dunbartonshire right across from the west to Fife and the Lothians in the east.

The recently published paper by the OECD on social innovation in rural areas sheds light on an often overlooked aspect of rural innovation: the unique challenges and opportunities that rural contexts present.