Chamber and committees

Let me first deal with the geographical issue with subjects. I totally appreciate that we have parts of the country where people cannot get employment, particularly in primary settings in some local authorities, while other local authorities continue to have to advertise, particularly for secondary subjects.

What we look at in initial teacher education is where the places are. We could try to have more initial teacher education in different universities or to deliver it in innovative ways so that it is not so focused in the central belt, which is sometimes where we see challenges.

We are considering what we can do to encourage people into science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, subjects—although not only those—and we have a bursary to encourage people to move into that subject area. We are doing work, under the Logan review, to see what we can do around computing. We have such schemes to ensure that we deal with subject areas. That is a continuing challenge not just in Scotland but elsewhere. We are very keen to learn from elsewhere what more we might need to do to assist with that.

I am keen to work with local authorities on whether there is more that they can do in terms of incentives. It might be that we have an overprovision of some skills in parts of the central belt, but, for very understandable reasons, such as a family being established, people do not have a desire to move to other parts of the country. Is there further incentive work that local authorities could do to assist with that? We have some such arrangements already built in for some of our island communities, for example, but a discussion is to be had about whether more can be done. Discussion on that will continue with the professional associations.

I hope that that deals with some of the issues that you have raised, Mr Marra.

I point to the response from Colleges Scotland when the budget was announced. Andy Witty said:

“Today Scottish Government has recognised the vital role of colleges in assisting in the economic recovery, alleviating poverty and mitigating climate change.”

He went on to talk about the genuinely constructive discussions that Colleges Scotland, Mr Hepburn, officials and I had on the issue.

It is clear that there is an increase of £26 million in the resource budget for 2023-24, which demonstrates, under very difficult financial circumstances, a real commitment from the Government to support our colleges and universities.

Yes, there are challenging times ahead for the Scottish Government, public agencies and colleges—these are difficult financial times. However, despite that, we have been able to increase the net college sector resource budget, because we recognise the situation. Individual colleges will be looking at important aspects of their budget, and they might need to make changes to their curriculum to deliver what they wish and need to deliver for the local economy. Colleges will take those decisions.

We have an increase in the overall budget. The Scottish Funding Council will move forward with draft applications for colleges in March and final allocations thereafter, so that they can deliver with the increased budget that they are receiving from the Government.

Yes.

—and we have gone through in great detail, in the chamber and in writing, how there is no freeze on apprenticeship places. For brevity, I will leave that there, convener. As I said earlier, draft allocations will come out in March.

Forgive me, but I did not write down your second question when you were going through your list, Mr Kerr. If you would like to remind me of it, I will go back to it.

I have a feeling that Mr Hepburn’s recollection will differ and that recollections may vary about whether he gave a non-answer.

You have asked me whether they are carrying out the reform work. Although they have an important role to play in it, they are not leading the reform work. Government officials are doing that, and I am leading the reform process.

I am genuinely surprised—I think that we went through this yesterday—that there seems to be a suggestion from some Opposition members that we should have increased the budgets for the SQA and Education Scotland, to allow them to have more staff to carry out some of this work. Again, I think that—

There have been no suggestions about how money could be moved within a portfolio or across portfolios. However, as the committee is aware, we are still going through the budget process, and I would be more than willing to receive and discuss some suggestions by correspondence.

I will broaden it out and say that we need to look at the assistance and advice that come from Government and the Scottish Funding Council on ensuring that universities, which are independent of Government, have policies in place to ensure that they are not at risk of one situation—Mr Rennie has referred to one situation—adversely affecting them in a way that would cause difficulties. All institutions are required to consider risks, and all universities are aware of situations such as the one that Mr Rennie suggested and the implications of them.

It varies widely across the system—a number of universities would not be that impacted by the situation that Mr Rennie suggested, but they would be impacted by other changes in international markets. It is for individual institutions to look at how reliant they are on a particular segment of international students.

I hope that we can all agree that encouraging international students to Scotland is a good thing. In Mr Rennie’s constituency, we see fantastic diversity around international students and what they bring to student and community life. However, quite rightly, institutions should consider whether they are overly reliant on one particular part of the international student market and whether they should make changes if there is a concern that they would be adversely affected by some of those situations.

Colleges have an exceptionally important role in our vision for our economy. One of the Government’s priorities is the move to net zero, and colleges will play an exceptionally important part in that. The on-going work on purpose and principles sets out where we want to develop a shared understanding and vision for Scotland’s tertiary education sector, including colleges.

In summary, my expectation of the college sector is one that can deliver for the needs of our economy and society. Those needs will change over time as our economy and society change, and our college sector will have to change and respond to those needs and demands. The sector has shown that it is exceptionally flexible, that it works well with local employers and that it looks forward to identify what future skills are needed to ensure that it can deliver on that.

For brevity, I will leave it there.

Given that it is a multiyear fund, we have a multiyear evaluation strategy. You are right to point out that the fund will have some short-term effects but that some effects will take time to come to fruition. We are looking at more frequent publications as part of the refreshed SAC and at what in-year evaluation we can do instead of retrospectively evaluating what has already happened. That would assist with how the money is being spent instead of our waiting until the money has been spent and then evaluating. That is quite difficult, because certain aspects are quite intensive, particularly for some of the projects, and it can take time to see the effects, as you will appreciate from your experience in schools.

The other important aspect is the headteacher survey, which asks whether headteachers feel that a difference is being made. We have seen very positive feedback from those who have replied to that survey in the past. The survey gives us as good a guide as possible—from those who take part in it—on whether headteachers feel that the money is making a difference on attainment or wider health and wellbeing issues. That is another important part of the process of checking in regularly, although we are fully aware that turning things around will take some time, given that, as Audit Scotland and the International Council of Education Advisers recognise, the issue is exceptionally complex.