Chamber and committees

Just ASN in school. If a child had additional support needs in primary 1, a support worker might be put in to help them, but they would not necessarily follow the child when they moved into primary 2 or even when a child went into first year at the academy, with the result that new support would need to be brought in. Of course, things could have changed, because I have been away from the local authority for a while, but I sometimes felt that a child’s support was left behind in primary school when the child transitioned to secondary school.

I do not know whether I am making much sense.

I am pleased to hear that. I fully understand why schools want to keep the resource that they have been given. That is a challenge, too.

Good morning, cabinet secretary. I want to go back to an answer that you gave to Willie Rennie. I think that you said that primary school teachers could move to teach in secondary schools if they had the qualifications.

Thank you.

I want to come in briefly on the back of George Adam’s question about additional support needs and the support workers who are put in place to help children. How do we ensure that the support follows the child as they move through their educational life?

I ask that because—at this point, I will put on my hat as a former local councillor—I know that schools got additional support workers to help with children’s needs, but, as the child moved up the school system, the support worker did not follow them. Does that make sense? The support worker would stay at the primary school when the child moved on to secondary school. How can we ensure that the additional support follows the child rather than staying in the school? I am keen that we ensure that the additional support that is available is used in the best way.

Section 20 of the 2005 act requires the SFC, in exercising all its functions, to:

“have regard to—

(a) skills needs in Scotland;

(b) issues affecting the economy of Scotland; and

(c) social and cultural issues in Scotland.”

Amendments 51 and 56 in my name seek to expand that requirement so that all the matters must also include consideration of issues

“in different localities within Scotland”

to take account of geographical diversity across the country.

Speaking as an Aberdonian and an MSP for Aberdeen, such provision is particularly important for my locality. Aberdeen has specific skills strengths and needs in relation to the energy industry, which is facing significant transition and change regarding the skills that employers will need in the future. My amendments therefore represent common sense and will strengthen the role and functions of the SFC in this important area. I encourage members to support my amendments 51 and 56.

I move amendment 51.

I welcome the minister’s amendments, which take us as far as we can go on fair work with our devolved powers. I understand the points that Stephen Kerr is making, but his amendment would narrow the functions of the SFC and unhelpfully limit the purpose of post-school training in education. Ensuring that it meets the needs of our economy is hugely important, but education cannot become that transactional. There is a strong need to support the wider societal benefits of post-16 training, education and skills development. I therefore cannot support Stephen Kerr’s amendment 58.

I press amendment 51.

Amendment 51 agreed to.

Amendments 52 to 55 moved—[Ben Macpherson]—and agreed to.

Amendment 56 moved—[Jackie Dunbar]—and agreed to.

Amendment 57 moved—[Ben Macpherson]—and agreed to.

Section 12—Consideration of skills needs and socio-economic issues

Amendment 58 moved—[Stephen Kerr].

As in the stage 1 debate, I thank the committee clerks, the witnesses, the ministers—former and present—and the officials. I also thank my fellow committee members for their work in scrutinising the bill. As members can imagine, there was more work to be done as we moved from the general principles of the bill to the nitty-gritty, so I add a little more thanks to reflect that.

I am disappointed—but not surprised—that some members are not supporting the bill. I am not surprised, because, in the two years that I have been on the committee, I do not think that Labour has yet supported a stage 1 general principles report. It does not matter what the subject of a bill is—Labour will amend it a great deal, but it will not support it.

However, I will repeat what I said at the start of my stage 1 speech on the bill. So often in the chamber, we talk about Scotland’s future and building a better country for the next generation. The bill is not just about building a future for the next generation but about ensuring that they have the skills and knowledge to build their own future.

Of course, the bill is not only about young folk. There are plenty of people who enter or re-enter tertiary education and training later in life for all sorts of reasons. Goodness knows that there are plenty of people in the Aberdeen area who have had to reskill and retrain in recent years, first because of the downturn that was caused by oil prices being too low and then because of the downturn that was caused by the windfall tax because oil prices were briefly too high.

Thankfully, the Scottish Government has stepped up to support training and retraining in our city, not least through its oil and gas transition training fund and by helping to fund North East Scotland College’s energy transition skills hub. That means that, whether the workers in my Aberdeen Donside constituency work in oil and gas or in renewables, they will continue to have the skills that are needed to power our nation and economy.

Let us get back to the bill that is in front of us. The bill will ensure that funding goes where it matters most: to supporting skills, to driving innovation, to ensuring that our economy has the talented workforce that it needs and to giving every learner the opportunity to thrive. Our colleges, universities and other training providers are tasked with equipping people—whether they are young people who are leaving school or those who want to retrain and take a new path—with the skills and qualifications that they can use to find their way in life, whether they use those to find a good-quality, well-paid job, to establish their own business or even to find a voluntary role. Folk want to contribute to our economy and to our society. The bill will help them to get the skills that they need.

Colleges, universities, apprenticeships and other training all help folk to improve their skill set. Therefore, it seems appropriate that I should talk about how the bill has itself been improved since it was first introduced. I will list some of the amendments that have been included in the bill. The bill now allows for a review of the credit-based funding model for colleges. There will now be a requirement for governing body members and senior officers at institutions to declare conflicts of interest.

More will be done to ensure that further and higher education institutions operate with transparency and accountability as a condition of funding. More will be done to protect whistleblowers and to ensure that there is better engagement with trade unions and students. New powers will also be introduced for the SFC to limit fees for apprenticeship managing agents.

Let us get on with it. Let us get the bill passed. Let us modernise how money gets to colleges, universities and training providers. Let us ensure that folk can get the skills and training that they need. Let us support our learners to better themselves so that they can go on to build a better Scotland.

I am pleased to have lodged two amendments that will ensure that regional and local needs can be considered and built into SFC activity in relation to skills planning and delivery. [Interruption.] Does Evelyn Tweed want to intervene?

I welcome the Scottish Government’s investment in additional support for learning and teacher numbers, which was announced this week in the 2026-27 Scottish budget. Does the cabinet secretary agree that it is essential that that funding makes its way into classrooms, where it can make the biggest difference?