Chamber and committees

For the purposes of the relocation policy, Edinburgh is defined as the area within the Edinburgh City Council boundary.

Whilst opening Fife and Glenrothes Colleges' Institute of Applied Technology this morning I announced the new rates of support for students in further and higher education. I have therefore, today placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre details of the rates of those loans, bursaries and grants, which will be available to eligible undergraduate and postgraduate students in full-time higher education in academic year 2002-03. A general uprating factor of 2.4%, in line with inflation, will be applied to the existing schemes of support in 2002-03, thus maintaining their value in real terms. We are also increasing by the same factor the standard rates of payment made to institutions by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland. These changes are consistent with those for England and Wales announced by the Secretary of State for Education and Skills.I am also delighted to announce today the introduction of a means-tested bursary of up to £510 for young Scottish domiciled students from low-income families commencing full-time higher education courses elsewhere in the UK from August 2002. The full bursary will be available to students with a family income of £15,360 or less. This will bring the spending power of these students into line with that of young Scottish students studying in Scotland, following the changes introduced last year, without increasing overall borrowing. The bursary will be available whether or not a student chooses to take out his or her full loan entitlement. We are also removing the anomaly whereby better-off parents are currently expected to contribute less if their children study elsewhere in the United Kingdom. From August 2002, the minimum loan for young students commencing courses outside Scotland will therefore be reduced to £1,870. These changes can be introduced at no additional cost. The arrangements for these students otherwise remain unchanged.The Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC) has also agreed to maintain the alignment between the further and higher education sectors by, where appropriate, uprating the support available to further education students by 2.4%. SFEFC have also taken this opportunity to offer FE colleges some flexibility in the administration of the additional discretionary funding available to students.

In December 2000 the Executive wrote to all Local Authorities and Local Enterprise Councils asking for information on potential relocation and development opportunities in their areas. The responses we received, including one from Fife Council, have helped inform relocation decisions.

The Scottish Executive is taking action in a number of areas to protect children's safety on the internet.We are supporting the current UK-wide advertising campaign to protect children using the internet. The campaign seeks to raise public awareness of the activities of paedophiles and the steps that users can take to protect themselves. We are reviewing our existing "Click Thinking" guidance to schools and education authorities to promote safe and responsible use of the internet both at school and at home. The Police Service and the Crown Office are working together to improve their existing training on Internet Crime, including action to tackle grooming by paedophiles on the internet. We are also working with the Crown Office to identify the scale of such grooming and possible remedies. In this respect I refer the member to my answer to Mr Gil Paterson on 13 December, S1O-4309.

We are always looking for ways to improve child protection. Current initiatives include the multi-disciplinary review of child protection which is due to report this summer and planned legislation to establish an index of persons unsuitable to work with children. We are also involved in the Government's UK-wide advertising campaign to protect children using the internet which was launched on 3 December last year.

All Modern Apprentices have employed status and so participation by males and females will reflect recruitment trends in specific sectors. There is scope to maximise Modern Apprenticeships in sectors with less of an apprenticeship tradition, and which have higher female employment rates. The Enterprise Network will be working with National Training Organisations to target increased uptake in these sectors. Initiatives like Make it in Scotland are being developed to raise awareness of job opportunities, including Modern Apprentices, for women in traditional sectors.

A comprehensive review has been undertaken of the current role of Community Learning Scotland (CLS). This review has included responses from key stakeholders including CLS.The Scottish Executive is fully committed to community learning and development as a means of engaging with young people, promoting social inclusion, developing individuals and communities and promoting lifelong learning.All of the functions currently undertaken by CLS are required to support delivery of the Scottish Executive's policy. Strengthening of the youth dimension of community learning is required to reflect its place as one of our priority areas. Ministers have decided that CLS's community learning, adult learning and training, validation and endorsement functions will transfer to Communities Scotland. The youth remit and Eurodesk will transfer to the non-governmental organisation Youthlink Scotland. CLS will cease to exist as an Executive non-domestic public body with effect from 1 April 2002. I will work together with the Minister for Social Justice and the Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning and other colleagues to ensure we co-ordinate and actively promote all aspects of community learning and development. The adult and community learning functions that are transferring to Communities Scotland will be central to the work that the new agency, as part of the Scottish Executive, will be doing to empower communities and to build the capacity of communities to be directly involved in local decisions and the management and delivery of services in their area.Scottish ministers are committed to raising the profile of youth issues with emphasis on effective support to practitioners in the field. The remit given to Youthlink is a challenging one and will require the strengthening of links between the statutory and voluntary sectors. I will be seeking views soon on priority areas for development of youth work in Scotland. Wendy Alexander, Iain Gray and I are also pleased to announce that a "Development Engine" to help drive forward the Executive's new initiative to raise levels of adult literacy and numeracy will be created in line with the recommendation in the recent report Adult Literacy and Numeracy in Scotland, within Communities Scotland.This will provide a new specialist focus on research and development in adult literacy and numeracy while ensuring effective co-ordination with national developments on community learning in general. Communities Scotland will work closely with a range of bodies and organisations in this regard. Raising levels of adult literacy and numeracy is crucial to promoting community learning and development, and wider goals on social justice and a competitive economy.

Scottish ministers have, through the Excellence Fund and the National Grid for Learning, made investment in information and communications technology for our schools a priority. We are now seeing a significant increase in the number of modern computers in every school and almost all secondary schools are connected to the internet. The next stage is the provision of broadband access. This will allow far greater use of online sound and video, making use of the internet in schools more interactive and more exciting.

Up to date quarterly Scottish manufacturing performance is measured using the Scottish Executive's Quarterly Scottish Gross Domestic Product estimates. Figures are not produced for the regions of England which allow comparison with Scotland's manufacturing performance over the period in question.

The curriculum offered by an further education (FE) college is a matter for the college's Board of Management to determine. The Scottish Executive has, however, issued guidance to the Scottish Further Education Funding Council emphasising the importance of developing a workforce of entrepreneurs and of promoting an entrepreneurial culture.The Funding Council's current corporate plan in turn emphasises the FE sector's strong role in promoting enterprise and entrepreneurship through the services provided for local business.