Chamber and committees

Vion met the eligibility requirements for Training plus which are:

There must be genuine competition for the project from locations outwith Scotland;

grant provision must be critical to influence the decision to locate or retain the operation in Scotland;

the project’s funding requirements cannot be met by a Regional Selective Assistance grant;

the company must have considered whether it could deliver the training through national training programs, including those delivered by Skills Development Scotland need to be considered), and

the project must be linked to the creation of new jobs or safeguarding of existing jobs.

Vion was required to complete a Training Plus application form which included details of the plans for the project associated with the grant along with projections and anticipated outputs.

A training plus grant is dependent on delivery of the training plan contained in the application and offer agreement. Funding cannot be paid out unless training activity has taken place and the company can provide supporting evidence of this and the costs associated with it. Currently, Vion is now not active on this project due to the 90 day consultation process and gave notice to Scottish Enterprise of this situation.

In the event that Vion had met the criteria to make an eligible claim (which it did for the first stage of the project), the conditions in the contract relating to the outcomes would have resulted in 100% clawback of any grant payment made. Therefore, Vion decided not to make a claim for the grant to which it was entitled.

The application for Training Plus was processed through the normal Scottish Enterprise delegated authority process which requires projects of this size to be approved by Scottish Enterprise’s Single Approval Group.

Modern apprenticeship starts are recorded by local authority area rather than constituency area. There were 894 modern apprenticeship starts in the West Lothian local authority area in 2011-12.

Under Curriculum for Excellence all pupils in secondary schools have an entitlement to learning languages as part of the broad general education to the end of S3. This includes learning across all of the experiences and outcomes to the third level of Curriculum for Excellence.

In the senior phase – from S4 to S6 – young people will have options and choices to take a range of national qualifications, including those which emphasise the value of languages skills for life and work.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-07680 on 26 June 2012. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Scottish Government will consider with stakeholders, including COSLA and local authorities, the resource implications of the recommendations of the Languages Working Group Report, Language Learning in Scotland: A 1+2 Approach, published on 17 May 2012. Ministers will respond formally to the report in the Autumn.

Scottish Government funds British Council Scotland to administer the Foreign Language Programme in Scotland, including promoting the value of Foreign Language Assistants to local authorities who are responsible for employing assistants in their schools. As a result of the Council’s work there will be 73 Foreign Language Assistants in Scottish schools in 2012-13 compared with 59 in 2011-12.

Scottish Government will work with local authorities and initial teacher education providers to take forward the recommendations of the Languages Working Group Report, Language Learning in Scotland: A 1+2 Approach, which includes recommendations for an audit of teacher numbers and skills to support implementation of the 1+2 languages commitment.