Chamber and committees

It might be a question for just Kirsty Garrett or Patrick Murphy. It is about wheelchair rugby. Rugby is becoming something that everybody plays; it is becoming important for women to take up, for example. Wheelchair rugby is quite a leveller because disabled folk can play with non-disabled folk and you can have mixed-gender teams as well. Is that something that is growing or can be pursued in order to level the playing field and encourage folk?

Apologies, Presiding Officer.

I welcome the debate and have enjoyed listening members’ contributions. The benefits of the Scottish Government’s significant investment in young people are evident, thanks to the developing the young workforce strategy and the young persons guarantee.

In 2021-22, a record number—95.7 per cent—of school leavers were progressing their studies or careers within three months of leaving school. Youth employment and vocational qualifications are one part of the Government’s strong and demonstrable track record of achievements in education. That record speaks for itself, but I will focus on vocational qualifications in our rural sector, the jobs of the future and the skilled green jobs that we need to protect our future in terms of the climate emergency.

I think that I am the only member to mention rural skills so far in the debate. I think that they are really important. The Scottish vocational qualification in agriculture at SCQF level 5 provides learners with the knowledge and skills that they need for agricultural work with crops or livestock. The SVQ covers areas such as monitoring and maintaining health, safety and security, developing an awareness of environmental good practice, and how to manage and improve the rural business environment. It also includes optional units on topics such as preparing and operating farm vehicles, preparing feed and water supplies for livestock, and monitoring and maintaining the healthy growth of crops. Upon successful completion, learners will gain an internationally recognised qualification that guarantees that they have the knowledge, skills and abilities that are required to carry out their roles successfully. Rural employers will also benefit from their employees being proficient in the skill set required.

Last year, I joined Tracey McEwan at Tarff Valley Ltd in Ringford in Dumfries and Galloway and at a dairy farm near Gelston, along with careers advisers from the local secondary schools. Tracey and the team explained and demonstrated to the careers advisers what rural employment opportunities are available to young people across Dumfries and Galloway. The feedback from the insight day was extremely valuable.

Young people take part in courses such as the one that I described at Tarff. They cover a range of mentor-supported topics and complete on-farm direct workplace assessments to show competence in specific tasks. Tarff also offers pre-apprenticeship programmes that allow young people of school age to be supported in their placement by a mentor who helps to prepare them for work.

The apprenticeship programmes are really important in getting people into agriculture, particularly as the sector has an ageing workforce. The sector is absolutely vital for our nation’s food security, especially given the current economic and Brexit challenges that it faces. I therefore ask the cabinet secretary and the minister always to keep rural skills and rural education at the forefront of on-going education and skills work.

I turn to green skills. As we continue to recover from the pandemic, we must build a fairer economy that delivers the skills, opportunities and jobs for the future that will help to secure our just transition to net zero and tackle the climate emergency. Scotland is already investing in green skills and attracting new green job opportunities.

The launch of the green jobs workforce academy is a welcome step in preparing our current and future workforce to seize the opportunities afforded to Scotland as part of the just transition to net zero. The academy, supporting people across multiple locations and online, is guiding people of all ages through a process of identifying the skills that they have and the skills that they will need to find and secure green jobs for the future. I am keen to see that the south of Scotland plays a part in that green skills strategy.

Recently, I visited the Hawick campus of Scottish Borders College, where I saw first hand the work that the college is doing to support people into green skills jobs and to upskill those who are already in the sector. It is leading vocational courses on building properties to passive house standard, installing ground source heat pumps and electric charging infrastructure, and solar panel installation and repair. However, one of the limitations that the college related to me is that the funding model to get those courses up and running is restrictive and if it wanted to offer them to pupils in school, the funding would not support it. Therefore, I ask the minister whether he would be open to meeting me and Scottish Borders College to discuss the specific funding issues that were highlighted during my visit last Monday.

It would also be remiss of me not to mention the work of Dumfries and Galloway College. The Stranraer and Dumfries campuses both support green skills, particularly in the wind turbine engineering sector, and I commend the work that they are doing.

I could probably expand a little but I prepared a shorter speech expecting that some folk would intervene, especially because I am the only person talking about rural skills, which are an absolute necessity for us in Scotland.

I thank Meghan Gallacher for that intervention. It is important that we gather data in many different ways, so data on 12 months-plus—longer-term data—would be valuable. It is useful that we explore how we manage the data and then what we do with it.

The Scottish Government has succeeded in achieving its goal to reduce youth unemployment by 40 per cent after actively pursuing the DYW youth employment strategy. Building on that, the Government is continuing to expand the opportunities that are available to young people. I repeat that agriculture and green skills have a crucial role to play in that.

What you are talking about is making me think about what is happening locally in Dumfries and Galloway, where businesses—Jas P Wilson in Dalbeattie is one of them—are engaging with schools and the kids are being valued for choosing whatever path they want, which might not be university; it might be vocational skills. Would you agree that there is work being done out there that is exactly what you have been on your feet, gaun on aboot for the past few minutes?

The minister has been working with me to address stigma, particularly for those working in health and social care, and not just those who work in alcohol and drug services. I thank the minister for her letter to me yesterday setting out that NHS Education for Scotland is working to incorporate substance stigma across all its learning modules. Does she agree that we must do all that we can to tackle stigma if we are to enable successful recovery, and that the media has a key role to play in that?

Listening to the debate today has made me think about a local case that I have been working on that involves a young person who is on remand. They could be on remand for up to 140 days, yet young people are not allowed access to any activities such as prison work or learning. Does Jackie Dunbar agree that the bill might enable some changes to be made to the current remand system so that young folk might be allowed access to certain activities while on remand?

I welcome the debate and the Scottish Government’s future vision for agriculture. As always, I welcome the briefings from NFU Scotland and Scottish Land & Estates. It is paramount that we hear the voices of industry in these debates.

Scotland’s farmers are the backbone of our nation. Farmers provide and support thousands of jobs across our country, and, as colleagues have said, they produce the food for our dinner tables and are the custodians of our land. I agree that it is vital that any future agricultural policy recognises the contribution that they make to Scottish society, the health of our nation and our national food security.

With Brexit, the pandemic and now rising inflation, this period has seen some of the most challenging times that the sector has ever faced. There has been a catalogue of failures from the UK Government to protect the interests of Scottish farmers. One example is Brexit, but there is also the UK Government’s abject failure to secure trade deals that protect our agrifood sector. Indeed, our food standards across the UK have been put at risk due to recent trade deals. I have raised that issue previously in the chamber.

Despite the challenges, our farmers and crofters must be commended for their resilience. The Scottish Government is determined to support them over the next few years. Part of its vision for agriculture is to support our agricultural sector to reduce emissions and for the sector to help, as it is doing, in Scotland’s fight against the global climate emergency. Around 50 per cent of the emissions in the agriculture sector come from livestock. However, it is important that the Government supports farmers to adopt not only the low-carbon technologies that exist currently but those that will become available in the future through technological advances. I will focus on those advances.

Farmers might need to make choices to reduce the livestock, given their own choices, so I would be interested to follow that further and see where we are. We heard in the committee from Chris Stark about some of the challenges of farming in areas such as Alasdair Allan’s region, which is peatland. One shoe does not fit every part of Scotland. We have a diverse farming sector across the country and we need to take that into consideration when we look at our future agricultural policy.

I return my focus to technological advances. Many of those can and do support our wider environmental goals. That includes the use of precision farming techniques to reduce the need for polluting fertilisers or pesticides so that we can support biodiversity.

The new biological advances cover a range of areas, including feed additives directed at reducing enteric methane emissions. Remote sensing technology, and associated monitoring, data gathering and analysis, also support our farmers to make the best emissions-reduction decisions. Moreover, technologies sourced from non-agricultural sectors—for example, digital ledgers, which are tools used to track and manage supply chains, business finance and information sharing—are also helpful for agricultural business.

In addition, 3D printing is emerging as a tool to help farmers reduce emissions. On Monday, I was invited to Borders College’s Hawick campus, where I heard about the green potential of 3D printing and the other excellent techniques that are being taken forward to develop green skills in the future.

I am particularly interested in the role of bioscience in improving agricultural efficiency and reducing agricultural emissions. Products such as Pro-Soil, Pro-Fortis and Bovaer, as well as Biocell, which is produced by Biocell Agri, work hand in hand to support increasing output while reducing emissions.

I am impressed with some of the products that apply natural methods to enhance cell walls in plants. That improves disease resistance, improves mineral uptake and enhances soil quality.

The industry has repeatedly told us how important it is that we get the new agricultural support system right, given the importance of the proposed bill and the Scottish Government’s commitment to listening to the sector.

Co-development, co-design and discussions with farmers and crofters are fundamental to that approach, which is in contrast to the shambles that the environmental land management schemes have caused south of the border. Does the cabinet secretary share my view that it is right that we take our time and that we need no lessons from the Tories when it comes to safeguarding the interests of farmers, crofters and growers in Scotland?