Current status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 9 March 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to develop the skills of the older members of Scotland's workforce.
A new older learners programme- Experience Counts’ - will be available from today. This programme aims to improvethe skills and learning capacity of older workers (age 50 and over) through encouragingSector Skills Councils to collaborate with colleges and learning providers to developand deliver bite size or taster courses aimed at the older worker within their sector.This programme will fund proposals aimed at improving the employability skills ofolder people currently in work and will deliver a total of £500,000 over the threefinancial years from 2005–08. Sector Skills Councils will now be invited to submitapplications for this funding.