Skills Strategy
The next item of business is a statement by Fiona Hyslop providing an update on the skills strategy. The cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of her statement, so there should be no interruptions during it.
When I launched the skills strategy in 2007, I set out three major areas in which the Government wanted to effect change: a focus on individual development, a response to the needs of the economy and the demands of employers, and the creation of cohesive structures. Significant progress has been made in all three areas during the past 18 months. The updated skills strategy, which provides more detail, is now available online, and its web address was circulated to all MSPs this morning.
It is important to note that the updated skills strategy sits alongside the Government's economic recovery plan in providing support to individuals and businesses in response to the economic downturn and in ensuring that we as a nation are best placed to take advantage of the upturn when it comes.
For individuals, we have set about implementing a programme of systematic reforms to the ways in which learning is promoted, delivered and funded. For the youngest Scots, we have launched an early years framework that recognises the need for every child to have the best start in life. The framework has been developed and launched in full partnership with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities.
For our young people, we are pushing forward implementation of the curriculum for excellence and focusing on better learning and teaching for individual pupils. Our new model for guaranteeing that all young people have an appropriate offer of post-16 learning is the 16+ learning choices programme, through which we will provide young people for whom school is not the right setting with a set of tailored and positive options, the aim of which is to guarantee that all young people have the opportunity to access employment or training as an alternative to compulsory schooling until the age of 18. We believe that staying in learning is the best way to ensure long-term employability.
For people with literacy and numeracy needs, we are conducting the first major survey of literacy and numeracy in Scotland since 1996. The result will be vastly improved baseline information that will ensure that our future policies better suit individual needs.
The Scottish Government has also worked hard to improve how learning is funded. For example, the individual learning account offer has been refocused so that it is more relevant to learners in the workforce: for the first time, it can be used for workplace learning. We have also opened up higher education to a broader range of learners through ILA 500, under which grants replace loans for part-time students. The fact that 15,000 applications have already been made shows that we are meeting a clear demand from individuals.
Overall, we have about 40,000 people in training. The majority are undertaking modern apprenticeships, but the figure also includes those who are training under the skillseekers, get ready for work and training for work programmes. We intend to have 50,000 people in training by 2011.
Our second area of focus is the need to effect change to ensure that Scotland's skills policies can respond to the needs of employers and the economy. Within the changed economic climate, that is now even more important. Listening to employers and acting on their advice has been a top priority for the Government during the past 18 months. I have met the chief executives of all 25 sector skills councils to identify what employers need, what the councils can offer, and how the Government can respond. As a result, the colleges and the sector skills councils have for the first time signed up to a collaboration agreement, which will ensure that the parties continue to have a close working relationship as they deliver for employers and the wider economy.
Since 2007, I have engaged with hundreds of employers of all sizes to establish how best we can work together to meet Scotland's skills needs. I have established the skills utilisation leadership group, which aims to make better use of Scotland's skills in order to drive up productivity and growth. The group comprises employers—Microsoft, First Scotrail and BT—along with Skills Development Scotland, the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council, the Scottish Trades Union Congress and the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations. It is a unique partnership.
All that activity with employers has resulted in a strong evidence base on which to build our policies. Employers understand that we are a Government that listens and acts. We listened to the tourism sector, and so are now funding a study into the possibility of creating a centre of excellence in hospitality and tourism. We listened to the food and drink sector, and are funding the development of a business case for a Scottish hub of the National Skills Academy for Food and Drink Manufacturing, and we have introduced adult modern apprenticeships in professional cookery.
We listened to the financial sector, and have helped to fund the establishment of an industry-led financial services skills gateway. We listened to the creative industries, and I am pleased to announce that, within the increased number of apprenticeship places for 2009 and as part of the Government's aim to develop new high-value sectors in the economy, 50 apprenticeship places will be set aside specifically for the creative industries sector in the coming year. That is in addition to the extra £5.8 million investment in Skillset's screen and media academies in Scotland, which was announced earlier this month and which will help to boost our country's position as a world leader in the creative industries.
We will continue to work closely with employers to ensure that we supply what they need. That is the purpose of the apprenticeship summit that will be held in spring, which will give us the opportunity for a frank discussion about the skills interventions and support that employers really want.
We have also been listening to employees. We have forged a strong relationship with the STUC as the communiqué on skills, which the First Minister and the STUC signed last year, demonstrates.
We need to promote development and innovation in cohesive structures: that is what we have done. At United Kingdom level, we play a central role in the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, and I have made sure that the commission recognises the importance of better use of skills in the workplace to improve productivity.
Major progress has been made by our partners in relation to the calls to action that were made in "Skills for Scotland: A Lifelong Skills Strategy". I am pleased that they have all addressed those challenges with enthusiasm and imagination. We have, for example, established a new set of relationships between the Government, the funding council and the universities. In particular, activity that is supported through the funding council's horizon fund is demonstrating how Government-funded higher education activity will respond better to the needs of students and the economy.
Scottish colleges have long had a reputation for responsiveness and flexibility. The way in which colleges such as Reid Kerr College have acted swiftly to ensure that redundant apprentices have access to alternative relevant training has been welcomed across the board, as has the £7 million that the funding council has set aside to ensure that training and support is available to redundant workers and for activities relating to partnership action on continuing employment.
The Scottish Qualifications Authority has played a hugely important role in working with the Scottish credit and qualifications framework and the sector skills councils to place an increasing number of Scottish vocational qualifications on to the framework, which will provide progression routes for individuals who choose to take a vocational path.
Skills Development Scotland has been established. In my guidance letter to the body, which I placed in the Scottish Parliament information centre this morning, I have made it clear that I expect it to be a catalyst for improved performance and better joint working on skills. It is already working effectively with the funding council and Jobcentre Plus on issues that support the economic recovery plan. To further support the plan, we need to be adaptable and flexible in order to meet the changing skills needs of the current economic climate. We have refreshed the PACE programme by increasing its scope and ensuring that it is well placed to address the rapidly changing needs of the workforce in the coming months.
The strategy update, which is now online at the Scottish Government website, focuses on adaptability and flexibility. We know that the ability to be agile and responsive is one of the most important attributes in difficult economic times. The strategy will continue to support that approach and we will focus effort and resources where they are most needed to support individuals and the Scottish economy in these difficult and challenging times of recession.
The cabinet secretary will now take questions on issues that were raised in her statement. I intend to allow 20 minutes for questions, after which we have to move on to the next item of business. I remind members that we are extremely tight for time, and that questions should therefore be short and to the point.
I shall be quick, Presiding Officer.
I thank the cabinet secretary for providing us with early sight of her statement and for the earlier correspondence to members on the strategy. I have not yet had the opportunity to welcome Keith Brown to his front-bench role, so I do that now.
In September 2007, Labour members set out their concerns that the strategy had been rushed out and that an opportunity had been missed. We are now in a reactive situation, rather than a proactive one. However, we welcome the announcement of extra apprenticeships in the budget and in today's statement, the guarantee to apprentices who face unemployment—which was also in the budget and the statement—and the improvements to PACE, which will help people who face redundancy.
The apprenticeship summit will consider the expansion of apprenticeship opportunities in the next financial year. Will the cabinet secretary confirm that the aim is to expand apprenticeship places not just in the next financial year, but in subsequent years, as we discussed as part of the budget discussions? I hope that the cabinet secretary will agree with that.
On the apprenticeship guarantee, I understand that some members have been contacted regarding apprentices who are facing redundancy and who want to know where to get help and support. How will the guarantee be highlighted and promoted through the apprenticeship system? If that work has started, will the cabinet secretary give a little more detail on it?
I am sure that the cabinet secretary accepts that, particularly in the financial services sector, we must tie employers into the work of PACE as early as possible. It is not only the public sector that must help people who face redundancy; all employers who make people redundant must consider what contribution they can make to helping those people into other employment, rather than their going on the dole.
There were several questions there, but they are important. I will answer as many as possible.
The apprenticeship guarantee is probably more developed in Scotland than it is in other parts of the UK. Work on that has been primarily with the construction sector, and particularly through the sector skills council, ConstructionSkills. Effective work has been done on placing individuals. If John Park has a look at our website and follows the connections to our partners' websites, he will find that a great deal of work is happening with employers, particularly those in growth areas such as engineering, in which there may be more opportunities to identify additional apprenticeships.
I am more than happy to tell members who are contacted by individual constituents who have been made redundant as apprentices about how to get in touch either with their sector skills council or with SDS, which is working on the guarantee. I recommend that anybody who is looking for an initial point of contact go to the website that was launched as part of the PACE initiative.
As part of the budget negotiations, we secured an additional £16 million for apprenticeships, which will be discussed at the apprenticeship summit. Clearly, apprenticeships carry on for several years, so the financial commitment in the budget is for that year, the next year and the financial year after that. It is a three-year commitment for those apprenticeships. However, I think John Park seeks assurances from the Government that we will maintain the level and start another set of apprenticeships in the next year. We are considering that closely, but I remind him that we are in a time of difficulty and are facing a £500 million cut from Westminster. If he wants more apprenticeships, perhaps he will join us in trying to ensure that public sector funding is protected.
The member is right about the importance of employers in the financial services sector engaging with PACE and doing so early. I say to all members who work with employers in their constituencies that the sooner organisations let us know of difficulties, the better. Moving somebody who is in work to other employment is much better than their falling out of employment. The culture and approach is changing in Scotland and employers now feel more comfortable about sharing such issues. Those issues will be dealt with confidentially, but the sooner PACE knows about difficulties the better, so that we can help people to go from work to work. Several employers are acting extremely responsibly and trying to direct that and we have good opportunities to ensure that skilled workers who face redundancy move to other employers.
However, we have particular challenges in Scotland because of the number of small and medium-sized enterprises here. PACE is particularly effective at working with large companies, so one of its future challenges will be in supporting SMEs to place their workers, should they be made redundant.
I thank the cabinet secretary for her statement, and for the advance copy of it, and I welcome Keith Brown to his new position. I am sure that his military experience will be invaluable as he defends the Government from attack from all sides.
I need not remind the cabinet secretary that the Government's skills strategy was rejected by Parliament back in September 2007. At that time, we felt that it was too vacuous and that it was lacking in detail. In May 2008, Parliament passed a motion calling on the Government to bring forward a revised strategy immediately after the summer recess. What we have today is more than six months late. I am, nevertheless, glad that we have something at last.
All Scotland is suffering from the impact of Labour's recession, so we must address skills gaps if we are to help turn around the economic downturn. My concern with today's announcement is that it is long on the creation of yet more committees—we have a strategic forum for the national performance framework, a skills utilisation leadership group, the Scottish Council of Economic Advisers and a national economic forum, and the Scottish funding council has a skills committee. We could do with fewer talking shops and more delivery.
I have two specific questions for the cabinet secretary. First, she will be aware of concerns in the university sector about the horizon fund to which she referred. Will she give us a guarantee that the general fund for all universities will increase at least at inflationary levels in future years, given that we will otherwise simply be robbing Peter to pay Paul?
Secondly, how will the Government develop vocational education for school pupils who are above the age of 14, in order to help expand our skills base?
Murdo Fraser made a number of general points, but I will address his specific questions.
On the general fund and the horizon fund, the announcement that I made of £5 million for the creative industries was one of the first announcements in respect of the horizon fund. It is about pursuing the economies that will take us through the recession and beyond it, to future economic growth. Our intention is to ensure that funding for universities remains competitive—that means both the general fund and the horizon fund. The allocation of that funding is the role of the funding council. I am due to have the first of the tripartite advisory group meetings with the universities and the funding council to take forward these matters.
On vocational training, there are strong relations between colleges and schools just now. Indeed, there is a considerable amount of funding in that area—skills for work courses are continuing and growing.
The experience of the 16+ learning choices initiative for those over 16 will be a valuable lesson on how we can include experiences for young people that are not necessarily school based but which give them vocational experience—sometimes in the third sector, too. Our learning of lessons from that can take us forward. Two thirds of councils are already involved in 16+ learning choices and more are joining as the months go by.
I thank the minister for a copy of her statement and I welcome Keith Brown to his new position.
We can welcome quite a lot of the statement, which is wide ranging. I suggest to the minister that it would be worth having a Government debate on the statement in the new few weeks, once we have had a chance to digest it a bit more.
On Skills Development Scotland, we are obviously concerned about the recent announcement of job losses. I seek reassurances from the minister that front-line services will not only be safeguarded but perhaps enhanced by some of the restructuring changes.
I welcome the minister's comments on listening to employers, and I repeat the point that I made on the Royal Bank of Scotland and my constituency at First Minister's question time: early intervention with companies is very important.
We welcome the setting up of the skills utilisation leadership group, which involves a number of large employers. Will SMEs play any part in the group and what specific support will the Scottish Government give smaller companies, which might be less inclined to invest in skills development at this stage, because of the economic downturn?
Finally, will the minister give us further information on what is happening with the extra—or reassigned—£7 million that the funding council has found for PACE support in Scotland's colleges?
On Skills Development Scotland, the restructuring is about ensuring that centralisation is moved to local activity. Front-line services will be protected and there will be no compulsory redundancies. We have already seen an enhancement in that any reorganisation will provide for extra resources on the front line. We have seen 80 SDS workers being moved into working in Jobcentre Plus to provide an integrated employment skills service. With Tony McNulty, I visited one of the first pilots in Greenock. The evidence shows that, for employability, it is essential to drive forward and serve constituents' needs.
We have used input from the national economic forum—which Murdo Fraser derided—on what individual sectors need for skills development and utilisation. We will now take that to SMEs. Some larger companies have offered to work with smaller companies. It is probably more important than ever that all companies take the opportunity to use skills effectively to drive up productivity. Now is not the time to reduce training. It is essential that organisations—perhaps with fewer staff—work smarter to achieve more and maintain their competitiveness. There are great opportunities.
If I have not answered any of Margaret Smith's questions, I am sure that she can contact me later.
I thank the cabinet secretary for the advance copy of her statement. I, too, welcome Keith Brown to the front bench.
How will the Government promote services such as ILA 500—which has been transformed from a loan into a grant—and the modern apprenticeship programme? How will the website that the cabinet secretary mentioned in her statement add to the Government's promotional efforts?
Skills Development Scotland is to launch its corporate plan and much of its material to promote the services in the national training programme, so Christina McKelvie will hear more from Skills Development Scotland about promoting the offers that are available. The fact that 15,000 people have applied for the ILA 500 grant shows that demand exists, which we are meeting. At a time of difficulty, more people might want to undertake part-time university study, so it is fitting that we pursue that.
The skills strategy is for lifelong learning. The website allows all the many partners in the process to see where they are. We were criticised for a lack of detail in the skills strategy in September 2007. I hope that members will bear with me, as we have probably overindulged in detail on the website, but it is worth examining for its up-to-date information about what is happening. The website will be a live operation that is continually updated. I urge members who are interested in sectors that relate to their constituencies to visit the website to identify the most up-to-date information.
I recall the question from Margaret Smith that I did not answer. The £7 million of PACE money to colleges will be used initially for activity to help apprentices who have been made redundant, but another measure is short-term courses to help people to move into employment quickly. Some members—particularly Labour members—have asked us to consider the European social fund. If companies are operating reduced working hours, opportunities might be used for learning during some hours of the week. That is being considered in other countries of the UK and we can pursue it, too.
Many companies might also pursue literacy and numeracy training at this time. Training can be improved in an economic downturn, so that the workforce is upskilled for the future. My colleague Keith Brown will pursue that in the months ahead.
I, too, thank the cabinet secretary for early sight of her statement and I echo the welcome to Keith Brown in his new role. I pay tribute to Maureen Watt for her work as a minister; she has a strong commitment to the policy area.
The cabinet secretary says that the 16+ model will guarantee that
"all young people have an appropriate offer of post-16 learning".
She will be aware of developments in England, where young people will have a real post-16 guarantee of education, employment or training, which will be supported by new legislation. She has already set her face—
Can we have a question, please, Ms Brankin?
Yes.
The cabinet secretary has set her face against such legislation. How does she propose to guarantee that all young people can access appropriate education and training? What performance indicators will be put in place to measure progress to achieve that guarantee? Will she agree to bring together schools, colleges, sector skills councils, employers and Skills Development Scotland to discuss how the 16+ model can deliver for all young people, so that no young person falls through the net?
Rhona Brankin has just confirmed that the Labour Party still has a policy of compulsory schooling to age 18. The legislation in England to which she refers will not be available this year, whereas in Scotland 16+ learning choices is available to many youngsters this year and will be available to all youngsters by 2010. Even if one agrees with compulsory schooling to 18, which we do not—people in Scotland think that would be a retrograde step—the English legislation will not be in place for several years to come. It is important for us to act here and now and to face up to the recession. We cannot allow many youngsters to slip through the net, as happened during the recession of the 1980s, in particular. It is important for us to provide opportunities. If there is any age group that this set of Government ministers will support, it is 16 to 19-year-olds; we will ensure that provision is available to them. Members from all parties may question whether compulsory schooling to age 18 is the appropriate way forward. I reject it and think that other members will, too.
On a more constructive note, the cabinet secretary referred to the extensive work that she has undertaken with the private sector. She said that she has engaged with several hundred employers, along with sector skills councils and the skills utilisation leadership group. How does she see employers responding to the skills strategy? What does she expect them to do to ensure that it is implemented effectively?
Michael Matheson raises an important issue: not all training should be funded by the public sector. In fact, most training in the country is provided and funded by the private sector. It is important that that continues, especially in a difficult economic situation.
At this time, engagement with the private sector is primarily about looking for opportunities for it to support apprentices who have been made redundant. Another issue is workplace learning; the availability of ILAs that can be used in workplaces presents a great opportunity in that area. Outreach work with private sector employers by colleges is to be encouraged and driven forward at this time.
We must listen to the different sectors to find out what they need, which means being responsive. The clear message from all employers at the national economic forum was that we must respond differently to each sector. For example, we have launched a modern apprenticeship in life sciences to ensure that we have the technicians who are required to support an industry that will continue to provide wealth generation for this country. Many areas, such as construction, are facing difficulty, but we must remember that there are many successful employers. Our job is to support them through the skills strategy. [Interruption.] I say to members who are muttering in the corner that the strategy was supported by a large number of external employer organisations, which recognised that it is the way forward. The strategy provides the flexibility and responsiveness that are important.
I will take a final brief question from Hugh O'Donnell.
I will try to be brief. First, can the cabinet secretary assure me that what is proposed in the updated skills strategy will not have a negative impact on money that is currently available through education maintenance allowances and under the get ready for work programme? Secondly, I ask her, with a great deal of sincerity, to look at the bureaucracy that surrounds access to all currently available training schemes. For example, people have to wait 13 weeks to get into the training for work programme. Will she also examine some of the criteria for access to Europe-funded programmes, which are not readily accessible early in the process of dealing with someone who has been made redundant?
As part of the 16+ consultation, we are looking at some of the issues relating to EMAs. Research shows that, by and large, EMAs do not encourage people to stay on at school, although they are effective with certain groups. The consultation recognises that and recommends that we continue to support them.
High O'Donnell is absolutely right about bureaucracy. We must be responsive and quick when dealing with skills, especially during a recession. He is also right about the training for work programme. We are actively pursuing the matter, and changes that are proposed for April will help to shorten the process. There is a difficulty relating to benefits and I have made the point to Tony McNulty that people should not have to wait for six months before they are able to access the programme, but must have access to training even if they have been claiming benefits for only a short time. I have pursued the matter with Westminster, and it is recognised that we have a common goal and interest in the area. I understand that changes to the system may be piloted at an early stage in Glasgow. At a recent meeting with Tony McNulty here in Parliament, I encouraged him to pursue the issue.