Question reference: S6W-13734
- Asked by: Willie Rennie, MSP for North East Fife, Scottish Liberal Democrats
- Date lodged: 10 January 2023
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Current status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 18 January 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many apprentices have been recruited in the construction industry onto schemes funded by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) in the current academic year; whether this number exceeds the number of places funded by the Scottish Government, and, if so, by how many places, and what additional support it plans to provide to SDS to cover any such shortfall.
Answer
Skills Development Scotland (SDS) provide funding for Modern Apprenticeships (MAs) each financial year. There were 3,231 MA starts within the Construction & Related occupational grouping up to the end of quarter 2 in 2022-23, with MA year-end statistics for 2022-23 expected to be published in May 2023.
SDS recently undertook a reallocation process for MA starts as part of their usual contract management processes and several hundred starts have now been allocated to providers who requested additional starts and met the eligibility criteria, a proportion of which have gone to construction.
It is standard practice for SDS to review changing demand for apprenticeship starts in-year and adjust the number of starts allocated to respond as appropriate within budgets available. SDS will continue to follow this process and keep under review whether any additional starts can be allocated to providers within this financial year.