SVTC Areas

• Central London
• West London
• East London
• North London
• South London
• Aberdeen
• Basingstoke
• Bath
• Bedford
• Belfast
• Birmingham
• Bournemouth
• Brighton
• Bristol
• Cambridge
• Cardiff
• Chelmsford
• Colchester
• Coventry
• East Midlands
• Edinburgh
• Glasgow
• High Wycombe
• Leeds
• Leicester
• Liverpool
• Manchester
• Newcastle
• Northampton
• Norwich
• Nottingham
• Oxford
• Peterborough
• Portsmouth
• Reading
• Richmond
• Southampton
• Stockport
• Swansea
• Wolverhampton
• Worcester

Shared Vision: Training & Career Development in Edinburgh

The Current Job Market and Employment Opportunities in Edinburgh

The Edinburgh job market, like most other major cities across the world, has been hit by the financial crisis. However, thanks to certain favourable economic factors, it has been able to weather the storm more easily than other comparable cities.

Edinburgh houses a reported 1.2m highly skilled individuals. The job market in the city and immediate region is attractive for employers and employees alike with plenty of opportunities and a fair degree of job security. Edinburgh regularly features high in the tables of UK employments rates – indeed in 2006, the rates of employment were at their all time highest, outdoing all the cities in England. Edinburgh has the highest percentage of professionals in the UK with 43% of the population holding a university degree or professional qualification.

Edinburgh has a varied economy presenting employees with many sectors in which to find work that fits their skills and meets their aspirations. The key sectors are science and technology, creative industries, financial services, tourism and the public sector.

Edinburgh can boast that some of the UK's largest and most respected financial services organisations have headquarters in the city such as the Bank of Scotland and HBOS. The region can claim to be the powerhouse of the Scottish economy.

The Scottish capital also enjoys a reputation as being one of the top holiday/city break destinations in the world, making it a magnet for tourists and international investment alike.

Edinburgh is also home to the Scottish Parliament and attracts 4 million visitors per year and injects £1.73 billion annually into the local economy. Edinburgh Park, located to the west of the city, is a 58-hectare business park which houses more than 20 blue-chip companies such as HSBC, Aegon and JP Morgan as well as over 7,000 employees.

Professional career development in Edinburgh

Many businesses and employees in Edinburgh use online business networking websites to promote and liaise with users. LinkedIn is very popular website for recruitment agents, job seekers and local businesses.

You will find many networking organisations host weekly, fortnightly or monthly breakfast and lunch sessions for all local businesses and entrepreneurs across the capital.

• Scottish Enterprise is an organisation that supports Scottish companies through the identification and exploitation of economic growth opportunities. It aims to enable businesses to function within or create globally competitive sectors, helping them with attracting new investment and generally working towards the creation of a world-class business environment.
• Scottish Institute for Enterprise (SIE) was setup to help students in Scotland to discover their entrepreneurial talents and encourage them to start up their own business ventures.
• Skills Development Scotland offers help to both employers and employees. As Scotland's leading skills body, they are equipped to provide skills, training and funding advice throughout the country.
• Business Gateway is a government online resource for businesses in Scotland. They offer essential information, support and services to employers and employees, whether you work for a large company or are on your way to starting up. Businesses in Edinburgh still support and believe in in-house training for their staff, but some find it more beneficial to send their employees out to one of the many local training centres across the city.
• Pitman Training Centre focuses on training and education in qualifications directly related to the local job market.
• GTG Training provides quality training and educational courses across a wide spectrum to a wide range of successful local organisations. They supply training to companies such as Arnold Clark along with the NHS, major banks, Ministry of Defence, public utilities, the emergency services, and other local businesses.
• New Horizons is an IT training company which has over 300 centres in 70 countries, one of which is in Edinburgh. They offer a wide range of technology and business skills training from basic applications to complex IT systems and are also a learning solutions provider for many of the industry's top vendors such as Microsoft, Cisco and VMware.

You'll find more information about business training companies and services on Actual Edinburgh.

Further Considerations: Many companies require, or at least prefer, that perspective employees have a valid drivers license. Being able to drive broadens your range of opportunities, both in the type of position you can apply for, as well as the locations you can work in as not all are easily accessible by train or bus. Candidates that do not yet possess a drivers license should seriously consider learning to drive sooner rather than later. You can find a list of qualified instructors here.

Recommended by Prime Office Space, the commercial property partner for Shared Vision: Training & Career Development in Edinburgh.

Script error: /var/www/html/svtc.org.uk/include/pfxml/PFLinks18.xml is not writable. Please set write permissions on /var/www/html/svtc.org.uk/include/pfxml/PFLinks18.xml.