Chamber and committees

Two members of the strategic funding review working groups are volunteers. None of the steering group are volunteers. In addition, a large number of volunteers attended the consultation road-shows in Inverness, Glasgow and Edinburgh which contributed towards the work of the review. Many members of the steering group and working groups also volunteer on a personal capacity.

A full list of all members of the review steering group and working groups can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/viu.

Information on the number of migrants from EU accession countries who have settled in Scotland is not available. While the most recent Accession Monitoring Report indicates that over 10,000 migrants from the EU accession countries have registered to work in Scotland between May 2004 and March 2005 there is no data available on the number of migrants who have actually settled in Scotland.

On 13 May 2005 the Scottish Executive published Councillor Eric Milligan’s report on First Impressions of Scotland that had been commissioned by Scottish ministers in 2004. The Executive also published ministers’ response to the report which forms an action plan to improve the first impression that international visitors receive of Scotland.

The Scottish International Scholarship Programme will provide places for 22 international scholars to Scotland in the coming academic year from China (9), India (6), Australia (2), South Africa (2), Singapore (2) and New Zealand (1). Scholarship places are expected to be awarded by the end of June 2005 and students will commence their studies in October 2005.

We are not, and have no plans, to discuss such an extension with Her Majestys Government.

We have not undertaken any training seminars with Work Permits UK. However, we have recently appointed a Senior Business Development Executive on secondment from Scottish Enterprise who will play an important part in setting out our strategic framework to raise awareness of Fresh Talent and to deliver training and support services to Scottish employers. We have also prepared an Employers Toolkit for use by Scottish employers who want to know more about employing foreign nationals who need permission to work in the UK. The toolkit is available from the Relocation Advisory Service, through the Scottish Enterprise Networks and on our website, www.scotlandistheplace.com.

Non-European Economic Area nationals who completed an HND at a Scottish college of further education will be entitled to apply to the Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland scheme.

The Fresh Talent initiative aims to provide an additional pool of talent to support the long term economic and cultural growth of Scotland. The initiative is one of a range of measures we are taking to further invigorate our economy. The Fresh Talent initiative will play its part to make sure that Scotland has the necessary skills and talent to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

In taking forward the Fresh Talent initiative, we recognise that tourists who have a good experience whilst in Scotland are more likely to consider, or recommend, Scotland as a great country to live and work. We are therefore putting in place a range of measures to showcase all facets of contemporary Scotland to visitors. For example, we have recently launched a campaign to welcome visitors to Scotland at our major airports and we are producing a CD-ROM and brochure on modern Scotland that will be distributed to the international press and visitors to G8 and major tourist events across Scotland this summer. We will target specific events that attract a high number of tourists such as the Edinburgh International Fringe where we will place a full page advert to promote Scotland, and we will run adverts at the major golf championships in Scotland.

The Scottish International Scholarship Programme will provide places for 22 international scholars to Scotland from China (9), India (6), Australia (2), South Africa (2), Singapore (2) and New Zealand (1).

Under the Dare to be Digital competition we have provided funding for eight international scholarships from China (2), Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Taiwan and Thailand to participate in the summer 2005 competition.