* Scotland's colleges and universities have access to an interactive national website to keep them informed about skills shortages.
Iain Gray, Scotland's enterprise, transport and lifelong learning minister, has unveiled the FutureSkills Scotland website, which aims to plug skills gaps through a database of hard-to-fill vacancies. It was set up by Scotland's two development agencies, with government backing.
The first large-scale survey of employers showed 12,000 out of 65,000 vacancies were hard to fill because applicants lacked the necessary qualifications or experience.