Chamber and committees

There are many initiatives and policies in this space to encourage and support our young people to ensure that they can fulfil their potential, including the free tuition that the Government has provided for students. More than 750,000 students have benefited from that policy since it was introduced by the first SNP Government. We are investing more in our college sector. In 2024-25, 93.5 per cent of school leavers were in a positive follow-up destination nine months after leaving school, and we congratulate them.

We are not complacent. We realise the challenges that we are all facing, with technological change and the pressure in the economy around recruitment, but our young people are doing well, and the Government stands to support them as much as we can.

As I mentioned in the members’ business debate a few days ago, the question of the future of our universities will be pertinent for all of us who have the privilege to serve in this Parliament for the next five years.

The cross-party work that was established before the election on the framework for the sustainability and success of our universities has three pillars of exploration and collaboration. That work is going on right now—with a variety of stakeholders—to come up with proposals for how to make the changes that are required for our sector to continue to be successful. We are thinking ahead about the decades to come and making sure that we are agile and changing in the way that is necessary.

Responsibility for the pressures on the funding of our universities does not sit entirely with our Government. There are many reserved aspects that have caused higher costs for our universities. In particular, issues of immigration law make it much more difficult for universities to recruit internationally. The national insurance increase was a surprise and a very high cost for our universities.

We absolutely recognise the important work that is taking place in constituencies such as Glasgow Cathcart and Pollok, in which our local authorities, schools and partners are working together to support young people into positive destinations. Data is not available at a constituency level but, in Glasgow City, 94.9 per cent of leavers—which is even higher than the national figure—entered an initial positive destination in the academic year 2024-25. That is a very strong position across the city—a significant part of which the member represents.

The Government has engaged through headteacher round tables—for example, at Castlemilk high school—as well as with area leads for Developing the Young Workforce. If Zen Ghani would like any support from the Government to connect with Skills Development Scotland, the Scottish Funding Council or other stakeholders that may be of assistance in his constituency, we stand ready to help and serve.

This year, building on previous work and initiatives, the Scottish Government has introduced a new Government-led skills planning model—which has been developed in close partnership with stakeholders, including those in industry—to ensure that our post-school education and skills system becomes even more responsive to Scotland’s strategic skills priorities. The collaborative work is ongoing. For example, I held a round-table meeting with different organisations and business voices this morning. I will aim to update the Parliament on the work in the autumn.

We want to support all our young people to choose a pathway that suits their strengths and enables them to fulfil their potential to the greatest extent, developing their skills and critical thinking.

Our all-age careers support, delivered by Skills Development Scotland and other partners, promotes every pathway to our young people. We are investing £198 million a year in around 25,500 new modern apprenticeships, 5,000 foundation apprenticeships and more than 1,500 new graduate apprenticeships. We are committed to increasing apprenticeship opportunities to 150,000 over the course of this session of the Parliament, supporting our economy and our society.

Universities are autonomous organisations. They choose which degrees they offer. It would be helpful to understand from the member’s supplementary question what he means by degrees that “offer limited value”, so that we can understand the point that he is trying to make.

The member needs to spend some more time understanding how we deliver the different opportunities within our system, through the Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland. Those streams—apprenticeships, college funding and university funding—are coming together, which will provide a better operational position for achieving parity of esteem between the different choices that people make and creating even more collaboration across the system.

The apprenticeship levy is a subject that has been raised with me multiple times during my tenure in this role, including in the chamber. We are committed to working with industry to provide more apprenticeship support. I refer to the measures in our manifesto, which I discussed with the stakeholders I met this morning.

There is growing demand for apprenticeships, and the Government wants to support our young people to achieve in the way that suits them best. However, it is not helpful for any member to come to the chamber and state that one avenue is potentially preferable to another. We are trying to create a situation with parity of esteem, in which everyone can fulfil their potential and best contribute to the economy and society.

We realise that support for our universities from the devolved Government is important. However, in relation to that question, we do not exist in isolation. It is worth remembering that, in the most recent budget, we increased the budget for universities by 5 per cent and that we are liaising closely with them.

With regard to the University of Glasgow situation, although, like all universities, it is autonomous, we strongly urge universities to consider redundancies only as a last resort.

I am sure that, collectively, we all want to congratulate the 2024-25 school leavers, 93.5 per cent of whom were in a positive destination nine months after leaving school. We will also, I am sure, want to recognise together the dedication of the practitioners who supported them to achieve that.

Those outcomes reflect sustained investment across our education system, including more than £1 billion through the Scottish attainment challenge and wider support for learning. We have strengthened employer engagement with schools and funded targeted support from professional careers advisers. There is more to do—always—but the foundation that we have is strong, as the figures show.

Daniel Johnson knows that I like to be constructive in my dialogue in the chamber, but I must gently point out that one of the key problems that those in industry have emphasised to me is the impact of the national insurance increase, as well as other pressures and costs that have affected the number of apprenticeship starts and the ability of employers to recruit more generally.

One of the areas that we are focusing on, and where we have stepped up with additional funding, concerns how our college sector can play an even more pivotal role in delivering the apprenticeships that we need. We are working collaboratively with the college sector and have increased its budget by 10 per cent this financial year.

We are also undertaking a review of the contribution rates, so that, despite the external pressures—including the extra costs arising from reserved changes by the United Kingdom Government—we are looking to support employers to take on more apprentices.

I have already talked about the increase in the college budget and the university budget. The Government is investing £3.5 billion in the sector as a whole, in order to improve outcomes and ensure that our young people can fulfil their potential in further education, higher education or apprenticeships.

As a Parliament, we will soon enter a period when we make budgetary decisions. It will be the choice of the Parliament how much we invest in education in the next budget. If we want to realise our potential as a nation, engage in preventative spending, remain competitive economically and improve our society, education is an excellent investment to make.