Skills
The next item of business is a debate—[Interruption.] Sorry, I am just checking that members are paying attention. The next item of business is a statement by Fiona Hyslop on making skills work for Scotland through ScotAction. The cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of her statement, so there should be no interventions or interruptions.
I welcome the opportunity to update Parliament on the actions that the Scottish Government has taken to ensure that businesses and individuals have the skills to cope with recession and to build for recovery.
When we launched "Skills for Scotland: A Lifelong Skills Strategy" in 2007, we made it clear that the strategy was a call to action to work together on building a responsive and flexible lifelong learning system. That is now being delivered, and the recession has meant that such an approach is even more important than ever. For the delivery of Scotland's skills strategy, we have a skills system that is responsive and has acted quickly and effectively in response to the challenge that we have faced over the past year of making skills work for Scotland. Last year, we created more than 69,000 training opportunities. With our boost to apprenticeship numbers and the widening of individual learning accounts, we anticipate that the number of opportunities will increase again this year. To support skills for recovery, we have put in place a comprehensive set of measures—under the banner "ScotAction"—to provide training for work, training in work and training from work to work.
Scotland's unemployment rate remains below that of the United Kingdom—our youth unemployment rate remains 2 percentage points below that of the UK—but we still face major challenges. Through ScotAction, we are doing all that we can to use the economic levers that are under our control to help individuals to learn new skills or to enter employment. The Government will not repeat the mistakes that were made in previous recessions. We do not want to see another lost generation of young people.
First, I will address training for work. Over this year and next, colleges are being supported with an extra £16.1 million of funding to provide thousands more opportunities to school leavers and young people to study at college as an alternative to unemployment. Already this year, an additional £7.7 million has been allocated to 23 colleges in the areas worst affected by youth unemployment. A further £8.4 million is being made available in 2010-11. We plan to boost that figure by levering in additional European social fund money, which will almost double the funding that will be available in 2010-11. The expectation is that colleges will use the funding to support young people who seek a college place under the youth guarantee scheme. We are also making it easier for young people and adults to go to university. Last week I announced that, for the first time, a grant of £1,000 will be available for 14,000 independent students, who were previously reliant solely on loans.
Our work on co-ordinating and integrating the work of Skills Development Scotland and Jobcentre Plus is ensuring that individuals get access to the right training and advice at the right time. Early indications are that people who access the new service get back into work more quickly, so plans are now being developed to roll out the programme across Scotland from next year. Working with Skills Development Scotland, we have boosted funding for the training for work programme by £2.9 million to £6.5 million, which will provide an additional 3,150 places throughout Scotland. Individuals can now access training for work programmes after only three months, instead of six months, as previously. Accelerating our spend in relation to European funding has already resulted in £58 million being allocated to community planning partnerships to support those who are feeling the worst impacts of the recession.
ScotAction's second strand relates to training in work. I can announce that Scotland now has the most comprehensive package of support for apprentices in the UK. The apprenticeship summit that was held in April and subsequent regular meetings with employers and businesses have informed our work. This year, we are providing £16 million for an additional 7,800 apprentices—a 73 per cent increase—which will bring the total number of apprenticeship opportunities to 18,500 this year. Skills Development Scotland has completed contracting with training providers for all those opportunities.
The allocation of places focuses on sectors in which opportunities either currently exist or will emerge as we move into recovery. Over the summer I announced: 100 home energy and efficiency apprentices; 50 for creative industries; 500 for the hospitality and tourism sector; 410 for the food and drink industry; 460 for financial and business services; 1,000 apprentices in Glasgow; 1,250 for health and social care; 170 apprenticeship places for early years and child care; 2,000 for the retail sector; and 600 management apprentices.
To support apprenticeships, ScotAction is providing funding to invest in new apprentices, safeguard existing apprentices in their jobs and adopt redundant apprentices.
Employers, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises that are struggling to recruit and retain their apprentices, will benefit from the safeguard an apprentice scheme, which provides £75 a week for businesses to retain their apprentice's skills and knowledge.
To encourage SMEs to take on a new start, I have launched the invest in an apprentice scheme, which will give employers in the manufacturing, food and drink, energy and textile sectors a £2,000 financial incentive to take on a young person. It also provides a £2,000 incentive for microbusinesses to take on a management apprentice.
To ensure that we have enough technicians for the future in the growing life sciences sector, I have introduced the innovate with an apprentice scheme, levering in European funding to put in place our two-for-one apprentice offer. More than half the places are already being taken up, mostly by SMEs.
Supporting skills for business growth is essential, which is why I am delighted to be able to announce funding for businesses in the manufacturing and engineering sector to undertake the business improvement techniques qualification. Improving business performance now will ensure that companies are well placed to grow in the future.
We have also encouraged and supported individuals to earn and learn on a part-time basis. Individual learning accounts are now available to 16 and 17-year-olds for the first time and the learning threshold has been increased from £18,000 to £22,000, which makes more people eligible. Individuals can now access work-focused learning and have more choice of learning providers. Uptake of ILAs is already up 42 per cent this year in comparison with last year.
A £38 million package that replaces loans with grants is supporting up to 20,000 part-time students to access higher education, helping those who have been made redundant and who are working part time to support a family to retrain with a higher education qualification.
We are supporting postgraduate study, which is another area in which Scotland is leading the way across the UK: I have also now extended financial support to people who are undertaking part-time postgraduate courses.
The third strand of ScotAction is about helping people from work to work. In response to the rise in redundancies, we have moved rapidly to put in place measures that are helping affected individuals to move swiftly from work to work.
We have boosted support to partnership action for continuing employment—our national partnership approach to supporting redundancy—as well as improving and widening the service. Through the strategic use of European funding, we are providing 24 additional advisers across Scotland for the PACE redundancy service, which is ensuring that individuals have immediate access to the right advice and the right training. Those who face redundancy now have immediate access to training for work, and we have broadened the training opportunities available by opening up opportunities in colleges, funded by an additional £7 million.
PACE partners have responded to an unprecedented level of demand and I commend them for their work. From January to August, PACE has assisted 234 organisations and 14,232 employees. PACE is also now available to small companies.
Support for redundant apprentices, which is available through our adopt an apprentice scheme is a key part of our work, and we are seeing results. In Scotland, construction skills figures show that 43 per cent of redundant apprentices have found employment, in comparison with 33 per cent in Wales and 26 per cent in England.
The adopt an apprentice scheme is the most comprehensive in the UK and, to date, Skills Development Scotland has received applications for more than 180 redundant apprentices. The scheme is helping people such as Jonathon Cowper and Thomas Kay, whom I met on Monday. They were delighted to have the opportunity to complete their apprenticeships with Grant Westfield Ltd in Edinburgh, which received support through the adopt an apprentice scheme. More than 140 businesses have seen the value in investing in apprentices and building a future for the trainee, the company and, ultimately, Scotland.
Those measures are working. They are making a real difference to real people. I will continue to listen to employers, individuals, learning providers, the voluntary sector and our other partners, including Opposition parties, to ensure that we constantly look at ways to improve support.
We are ensuring that employers know about the ScotAction programme by promoting our work in the press and working with partners such as the Federation of Small Businesses and the Scottish Chambers of Commerce. It is important that Parliament and MSPs know the actions that we are taking but also that they help us ensure that their constituents, employers and individuals can access ScotAction programmes.
As a Government, we remain committed to doing all that we can to ensure that individuals and businesses have the skills that are needed to face the challenges of the economic downturn and to support growth and recovery.
The cabinet secretary will take questions on the issues that were raised in her statement, for which I will allow 20 minutes.
I thank the cabinet secretary for the advance copy of her statement, although it did not really contain anything new. I read most of it in the papers on Sunday.
I am glad that the cabinet secretary said that she will listen to the Opposition, because we have a long track record of supporting the creation of apprenticeships. We argued for the funding to create 7,800 more apprenticeships in the budget negotiations for 2009-10 and finally got the Scottish National Party Government to agree to that. We argued for the apprentice guarantee scheme. The First Minister promised that he would back that—that claim was repeated in the press release about the adopt an apprentice scheme, but we know that of the 1,300 trainees who have been made redundant, 600 are still looking for alternative training options and nearly 300 have left training. The idea of the adopt an apprentice scheme was born at the skills summit in April—another Labour proposal. Here we are in November—seven months later—and we finally have the details. Better late than never.
The SNP Government now claims that funding for apprentice places is vital to the Scottish economy. We have told the Government that for months. The Government talks of the challenging time that faces the construction industry and its impact on apprentice places. That challenge has been made all the harder by the SNP's decision slavishly to proceed with creating the Scottish Futures Trust, which led to a dramatic reduction in public sector construction projects that put thousands of workers on the dole. How many apprentice places could be created if the SNP reversed its ludicrous decision to scrap the Glasgow airport rail link project?
The cabinet secretary boasts that Scotland has
"the most comprehensive package of support for apprentices in the UK."
Just saying that does not make it so. As she said, more than 600 apprentices still look to finish their courses. What action is she taking to place them? More than 300 apprentices have left training. What action is she taking to find them and get them back into training? She boasts of extra capacity, but if Labour asks for another 7,800 apprentice places to be funded from next year's budget, will she support us?
That was several statements and a few questions; I will address the few questions.
It would have helped if Labour had supported the SNP Government's first budget for 2009-10, which contained funding for apprenticeships.
No, it did not.
No, it did not.
That fact did not change even when Labour was not willing to support the budget. I am more than happy to share good ideas with Labour. The money for apprenticeships was in the budget the first time and the second time, regardless of whether we had Labour's support.
There is £2 billion working in the construction sector to help to ensure that we can build for recovery. The investment of £2 billion in schools alone from 2007 to 2012 is essential, particularly given that most redundancies are in the construction sector.
Not for the first time, the Labour Party's figures on apprentices are wrong. Since February, only 397 apprentices have been made redundant. Each redundancy is difficult for the individual concerned, but we can take credit for the fact that 43 per cent of apprentice construction workers have been offered places and are continuing their apprenticeships and that 180 apprentices are in jobs.
As for the 300 apprentices who have left, Dave Whitton might not be aware that apprentices leave courses all the time, every year—recession or no recession—for disciplinary reasons or to have children, for example. I do not think that he had that in mind when he said that he wanted us to search them down and bring them back in.
We must work constructively with the sector. Ordinarily, Dave Whitton comes to the chamber with constructive suggestions, to which I am more than willing to listen. Rather than trying to nitpick, pick holes or mislead people, he would be better spending his energy on ensuring that employers in his area and his constituents benefit from the variety of options and incentives that are available. That is what people expect of the Parliament during a recession.
I thank the cabinet secretary for the advance sight of her statement. As businesses throughout the country struggle with the effects of Labour's recession, it is important that the Government provides support to sustain employment and help with retraining, so we welcome many of the measures that the cabinet secretary announced. However, I agree with David Whitton, who is muttering at me from across the chamber, that there was little new in the cabinet secretary's statement, although it is helpful to have a summary of what has already been announced.
I have two questions for the cabinet secretary. First, there is reference in the statement to the skills strategy, which, as she will recall, was rejected by Parliament back in 2007. Since then, we have had numerous calls from across the chamber for the skills strategy to be refreshed and brought back to Parliament. When will that happen? I believe that now would be the perfect time to do that. If the cabinet secretary brought an updated skills strategy back to Parliament, she would probably find that the other parties would engage constructively on it.
My second question relates to the cabinet secretary's announcement of the allocation of money to colleges. I am sure that she will recall the debate that we had a few weeks ago, when a Conservative amendment on the allocation of funding to colleges, particularly for those in rural areas, was accepted unanimously by the Parliament. Will she ensure that rural colleges get their fair share of future allocations of money?
On the member's second question, I have indicated that it is important that we ensure that colleges across Scotland are supported. That is why, despite a real-terms reduction in the budget for 2010-11, colleges will receive not only a cash-terms increase but a real-terms increase. However, I remind members of differences in the claimant count for 18 to 24-year-olds across the country. For example, in North Lanarkshire there is an increase of up to 5 per cent; in East Ayrshire, the increase is more than 4 per cent; in North Ayrshire, the increase is 4.5 per cent; in Aberdeenshire the increase is down to just over 1 per cent; and in Angus the increase is 1.4 per cent. Indeed, there has been a reduction across Scotland in the claimant count for 18 to 24-year-olds.
Our youth unemployment figures are below those of the UK because we are taking strategic decisions that help us to support areas that need it. However, I recognise that, particularly with the youth guarantee scheme and some of the issues that we will have to deal with post-Christmas and into next year with the flexible new deal, rural colleges as well as others will need support.
I should say that I am responding to a request from Parliament to come and update members on the details of ScotAction and the contracting of apprenticeships. The Parliament requested that in May, and I am acceding to it. We refreshed the skills strategy as requested by Parliament, and that was published in January or February last year. However, I have also agreed to a request by Margaret Smith that we come again to the strategy. I remind members that one of the reasons why we have been able to provide sector-specific incentives is because we abandoned the previous one-size-fits-all strategy. Part of the skills strategy allows for more flexible and responsive attitudes. We might not have been able to take those steps in the recession had we not adopted our skills strategy.
I thank the cabinet secretary for an advance copy of her statement.
It remains the case that no Government skills strategy has been endorsed by the Parliament. The Government has said in every one of its messages that we are supposed to pay heed to the focus on outcomes rather than inputs, so how many new jobs will be created by the measures in the package that the cabinet secretary announced in her statement?
In October 2009, official labour market statistics showed that unemployment is growing at a faster rate in Scotland than in the UK as a whole. However, the SNP election address for the European elections this year claimed that, on top of the capital budget, 20,000 new jobs would be created as part of the recovery plan. Will the cabinet secretary indicate where those further 20,000 jobs are being created for the Scottish economy?
The cabinet secretary referred to construction skills figures in her statement. However, in a report in October 2009, the ConstructionSkills group said:
"ConstructionSkills predicts that just 36% of its apprentices in England will find work this year"—
and
"an even bigger plunge in Scotland, with only 1,200 apprentices expected to find employment—a 46% drop since 2008."
Why was there no mention of the ConstructionSkills forecasts?
Regrettably, there is nothing in the statement for employers, especially in textiles and manufacturing, in my constituency and others who have made difficult decisions to ask workers to go on to short-time working. The issue has been addressed by the Welsh Assembly, but there has been nothing from the Government on the matter, despite our repeated requests over more than a year. The cabinet secretary cannot say in her statement that she has been listening to Opposition parties if those parties have been telling the Government for a year that an issue is critical for our economy but the Government has done nothing about it. When will she respond positively to our request?
The member has raised a number of issues, but I am conscious of the time. Apprentices in Scotland are employed. We have not taken the programme route, as in England, where apprenticeships can be achieved without employment. The 7,800 additional apprenticeships that we are providing all involve employed apprentices. They have added to the provisions of the economic recovery plan that have helped to create and preserve jobs. Of particular importance is the public sector investment that has been made in rail, as the member knows, and construction across Scotland. That has occurred with particular support from accelerated capital expenditure.
I am pleased to tell the member that Keith Brown has met Jim Hume to discuss some of the issues that have been raised in relation to the textile industry, in particular. The announcements that have been made about ScotAction include provisions for the textile industry. Invest in an apprentice is one initiative of which that industry can take advantage.
We have put together a programme for all sectors and ages that is the most comprehensive in the UK. That is why a number of national skills bodies are looking to Scotland to provide the lead in the area. We regularly share and exchange information with our English colleagues.
I, too, am conscious of the time. Seven members have indicated that they wish to ask a question. I ask them to keep to questions and ask the minister to keep to answering them. If she cannot reply to a question now, she can do so in writing.
While meeting many businesses in Lanarkshire recently, I have noticed that the view is prevalent that when times are rough—in times of recession—it is essential not to drop training and to hone businesses so that they can be successful when we come out of recession. Can the cabinet secretary explain further today's announcement of funding to support business improvement techniques? I understand that that involves work-based training, especially for manufacturing and engineering businesses. Can she give us an idea of the level of interest among companies large and small in taking up the offer?
Business improvement to shape businesses for the future is an important area. John Park has pursued the issue, in particular management apprenticeships. Small businesses can invest to enable existing employees to take on business improvement training. Lanarkshire is a key example of an area where support is needed; I referred to the increases in youth unemployment there. That is why colleges in Lanarkshire received the largest investment in some areas, especially to support young people.
Figures from the Scottish Parliament information centre indicate that 1,369 modern apprentices have been made redundant since April and only 486 have been placed since then. The safeguard an apprentice scheme that has been announced today is the right approach. However, will the cabinet secretary confirm that it will cover only 100 apprentices in the engineering, construction and manufacturing sectors?
We can follow up the matter with SPICe, but the figures that it cites are for a 16-month period, not the period since April. I gave the figure of 397, with 180 apprenticeships supported by the adopt an apprentice scheme. I am sure that we can pursue the veracity of the figures later. It is better to focus our attention on the success stories and on ensuring that people are aware of what can be achieved.
The provision of £75 a week is a good measure that will enable people to keep the apprentices whom they need. The programme is sector specific and includes a range of initiatives. We have been told that the sectors to which the safeguard an apprentice scheme applies are those that will benefit most from it. Small and medium-sized businesses can benefit most from the ScotAction programme.
The cabinet secretary noted that there has been a 42 per cent increase in the uptake of ILAs compared with last year. Will she elaborate on the groups that are benefiting from that?
A number of groups are benefiting. Where people have been made redundant, we are encouraging employers to allow them to retrain while they are in work, so that they can be retrained before moving elsewhere. ILAs and the flexibility that they offer are another outcome. I know that Jeremy Purvis does not like outcomes from the skills strategy, but a 42 per cent increase in the number of those taking up ILAs is important.
When we deliver programmes to help those who are unemployed, people expect the Parliament to come together to promote what is available and to ensure that people know about it. All MSPs are being given information relating to this statement to help them to communicate with their constituents, particularly about the short-term courses that ILAs provide. In many ways, those are what employers are looking for, rather than courses that take several years. The flexibility of what is available, from modern apprenticeships to short, sharp ILA courses, is producing a responsive system under ScotAction.
I welcome the statement. I wish to focus on the specific issue of financial sector jobs. On Monday, the Royal Bank of Scotland—
A question, please, Ms Smith.
This is my question. On Monday, the Royal Bank of Scotland announced a further 3,700 job losses. I know from speaking to representatives of RBS and Lloyds yesterday that the banks are continuing to work with the finance sector jobs task force to find employment for those who have lost their job. What is the cabinet secretary doing in respect of the task force? How successful has it been in securing training and employment for those workers who have lost their job in that key sector, many of whom are my constituents?
That is a very important question. PACE has been involved with RBS for some time, anticipating that there might be difficulties ahead. The role of the finance sector jobs task force is important. There are jobs and opportunities in the financial services sector, albeit that they are in areas other than those where people are facing redundancy. It is essential that we use the skills of individuals who provide careers guidance. The support for PACE and the increased number of advisers will help with the response to large-scale redundancies. In this instance, it is not just larger companies that will be affected by restructuring; smaller companies within the broad family will also be affected, and they, too, will get support from PACE.
I also mention the responsibility of Jobcentre Plus. People are coming out of the labour market, claiming unemployment benefit and then moving on to other jobs. There is still a throughput of people who, having been made redundant, are getting jobs, which compares positively with previous recessions. We cannot make snap judgments in that regard, but there is evidence that much of the support from PACE and other organisations is helping people to get back into work in Scotland.
Given all the evidence of inequality within Scotland, for example in the employment of women and regarding the severe challenge that people with disabilities face in accessing work, can the minister explain why her statement is virtually silent on how those and other disadvantaged groups will be targeted and supported? Will the minister specify what steps she and Skills Development Scotland are taking to address inequality in employment? Will the minister review her strategy as a matter of urgency to ensure that it identifies and addresses targets for those who are most vulnerable to unemployment and who are suffering the impact of the recession disproportionately?
That is a very important issue. One of the big challenges now relates to training for work for those who are more vulnerable, particularly because of the recession. I have corresponded with Johann Lamont on the matter, and I am happy to do so further on issues around apprenticeships. The perspective of apprenticeships—and even the word "apprenticeship"—can put off many women. I acknowledge that there is a gender imbalance. Johann Lamont has raised the matter before on a number of occasions. I am happy to take the matter forward in developing the strategy.
Did the work that the cabinet secretary mentioned regarding the Federation of Small Businesses and the Scottish Chambers of Commerce include discussions about improving apprentices' literacy and numeracy?
One of the issues in the skills strategy that Murdo Fraser wishes us to revisit is the opportunity to deliver literacy and numeracy, for the first time, through work-based assessment and learning supported by ILAs. We have already taken exactly that position.
The member is absolutely right about improving numeracy and literacy. The biggest survey that Scotland has ever seen is currently taking place to benchmark that, and the 42 per cent increase in ILAs that we have promoted is a great example of how to use flexible learning to help with literacy and numeracy in support of people in the workplace. The FSB and the Scottish Chambers of Commerce have been very much engaged in ensuring that the ScotAction programme is informed, and they are making their memberships aware of the opportunities.
Small businesses in Scotland need our support, and we are providing that support with ScotAction.