I am very pleased that we have reached agreement with the professional associations on a three-year pay deal for teachers. This process of dialogue has delivered a fair pay deal and a partnership approach to tackling a number of important issues that matter to the profession and the government.

I am in constant dialogue with the profession and I was keen to ensure that the discussions over pay took in wider questions over workload and empowerment. We now have a landmark agreement that provides the stability we need to strengthen Scotland’s education system and deliver the best possible outcomes for our young people.

The agreement we have reached relates to many of the themes I reflected on at the recent EIS headteacher and depute headteacher conference on the empowering schools agenda.

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The conference provided an ideal opportunity to consider why empowerment is a necessity within the teaching profession and what systemic steps we must take to ensure that we achieve all that we can for Scotland’s children and young people. For me, we need a highly empowered profession to achieve the potential that was imagined in the national debate that led to Curriculum for Excellence.

CfE will only be successfully delivered by a profession that is confident in itself and is creative in how it takes forward such a dynamic curricular approach. Only an empowered profession - empowered in every school, every classroom and every setting for learning - will be able to equip young people with the capacities they need to deal with a fast- and ever-changing world.

A ‘truly collaborative’ education system

To make this vision possible, the profession must be constantly working to strengthen learning and teaching. That is why we must all work together - teachers, professional associations, local authorities, Education Scotland, government - to create a truly collaborative system that is focused on enhancing learning and teaching.

The need for more collaboration was one of the clarion calls from the 2015 review of Scottish education by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Endorsing CfE as a bold, wise and correct reform for Scotland, the OECD recommended that we create a culture of much greater collaboration within our education system.

There is excellent emerging practice within Scottish education, and we must ensure that it has a platform to be shared and appreciated. That is the rationale behind the formation of the Regional Improvement Collaboratives - not as dusty bodies that worry away about structures and powers, but as living spaces for dialogue and exchange amongst professionals who are all devoted to improving learning and teaching.

So, for me, the necessity for empowerment of the profession is set within that context of the bold curriculum choice that Scotland has made, the need for us to encourage more collaboration and for us to trust the teachers who are closest to children and young people to take the decisions that matter to their education.

Empowering headteachers

There are two major components that are required to make the empowerment agenda full of impact.

The first is the Headteachers’ Charter. For me, the charter is central to the empowerment agenda because I am yet to see a school that thrives unless it has effective leadership. Headteachers should not be lone actors; they should be impressive leaders of learning working with their staff, pupils and parents to create excellent schools.

Giving headteachers much more discretion over staffing, finance and curriculum development is a fundamental element of what I believe will help to create an empowered culture.

The second component is teacher agency. I am absolutely committed to the concept of teacher agency as the means of enabling the dynamic, creative education system that CfE requires of us. And to serve young people well, that atmosphere must be present in every single one of our classrooms.

A sense of professional autonomy that creates professional confidence, effective classroom leadership and a relentless focus on improving outcomes for young people is the prize to be won through empowerment.

Cutting teacher workload

We also need an empowered profession to be able to tackle the issue of workload. Government, local authorities, even professional associations will not be able to effectively regulate workload. We can do our level best to change the culture of our education system and eradicate requirements that don’t really matter.

I am certain, however, that we will have more impact if we have professionals who are empowered, confident in their practice, devoid of any sense of fear, and able to decide what unnecessary things to dispense with to concentrate on learning and teaching. A teacher once said to me, “If it has nothing to do with the learner’s journey, I don’t do it.” That is a sense of professional confidence I want to encourage. It will emerge from an empowered profession.

All of these elements are vital to ensuring that we have a world-class education system that can fulfil our moral purpose to deliver excellence and equity for all; excellence by constantly improving our learning and teaching and equity by closing the poverty-related attainment gap.

Never has the moral purpose of Scottish education been clearer and never have we had such an opportunity to apply that moral purpose to transform the lives of children and young people. With the pay issue behind us, I invite all of Scotland’s teachers to play a full part in that journey.

The next stage of my journey came last week with the International Summit on the Teaching Profession in Helsinki - alongside the EIS general secretary, Larry Flanagan, and one of our primary headteachers, Jane Gray - where I explored some of the lessons we can learn from Finland about trusting teachers more to transform lives.

John Swinney is Scotland’s education secretary and deputy first minister