Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government’s position is that the Erasmus+ programme had a major impact in Scotland. Scotland received a total of 143.2 million euros during the previous Erasmus+ cycle between 2014-2020.

Scotland welcomes international students and recognises the important and valuable contribution they make to the Scottish economy, our educational environment and Scottish society.

The European Commission Erasmus+ higher education impact study (European Commission, Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, Erasmus+ higher education impact study – Final report , Publications Office, 2019, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2766/162060 ) has shown that participants in Erasmus+ have reported: higher levels of self-confidence, goal orientation, and social openness. The commission observed a relevant increase in several personality dispositions, attitudes, and behaviours, as measured by the memo© psychometric tool. This indicator also correlates with future income, job security, and career perspective. Furthermore, in the same report, a large share (>75%) of students interviewed after the mobility reported that they had a better idea of what they want to do in their career, they had re-oriented their study plans, and have higher academic ambitions. Also, on average, they are more satisfied with their jobs and social status.

Under the Erasmus+ programme funding in Scotland, a range of sectors benefited including higher and further education, vocational education and training, youth work, adult education and sports. The table below indicates the funding received by different sectors in Scotland from Erasmus+ between 2014-2020.

Teacher views are clearly important, and I have met with the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) to discuss the findings from their survey, as has the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) which has statutory responsibility for all operational decisions relating to national qualifications.

While I understand concerns raised by teachers around pupil readiness and workload associated with the reintroduction of coursework, SQA has advised that their decision to return to full assessment for most National Qualifications courses for the 2023-2024 session was carefully balanced and taken in the best interests of young people.

SQA evidence and advice suggested that, if retained for longer than necessary these course assessment modifications could have a detrimental impact on consolidation of learning, and progression to the next stage of education, employment or training.

I have also discussed these matters directly with the Chief Examiner, including the feedback from the SSTA, and received assurance that the impact of the removal of modifications will be carefully considered in the grading process in 2024.

The Scottish Government continues to offer free and impartial advice to all employers and individuals affected by redundancy through Partnership Action for Continuing Employment, PACE, which has local teams ready to respond quickly when situations arise and assist businesses to try and minimise the risk of redundancy before it happens.

As members of the PACE Partnership, STF will be familiar with the local support available to its members and the swift response it offers to support both employers and employees dealing with redundancy and working with them to try and minimise the risk of redundancy before it happens.

The Scottish and Welsh Governments last met in June 2023 to discuss opportunities for collaboration and sharing best practice across areas of mutual interest. This includes educational mobility and exchange programmes.

I met with the Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce on 6 April. Members include NHS employers, recognised nursing and midwifery workforce experts, professional organisations and academics.

Members discussed wellbeing and agreed that it will be one of five key workstreams, in building a sustainable, attractive, fair, flexible, respected and empowered workforce for the future. I am due to attend the next taskforce meeting on 28 August.

We support our local authority partners with £16 million in funding to ensure that every secondary school has access to counselling services.

Local authorities provide six monthly reports to the Scottish Government on the impact and effectiveness of school counsellors. A summary of the reports is published on the Scottish Government website . The overall picture on improving children and young people’s outcomes is positive.

Officials are also working closely with the Counsellors Co-ordinators Network to ensure ongoing engagement with education authorities on the provision of school counsellors.

School counselling is just one of a range of services that schools may have in place to support the health, emotional and social needs of children and young people.

As outlined in the answer to question S6W-18598 on 15 June 2023, the 2023-24 budget for skills and employability programmes has been confirmed.

The Scottish Government continues to offer free and impartial advice to all employers and individuals affected by redundancy through Partnership Action for Continuing Employment, PACE, which has local teams ready to respond quickly when situations arise and assist businesses to try and minimise the risk of redundancy before it happens.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering a balanced budget with a focus on the renewed missions set out recently by the First Minister - to tackle poverty; to build a fair, green and a growing economy; and to improve our public services.

In 2023-24 this includes up to £108M to deliver employability services for those individuals who need it most to enter and progress in work, we remain committed to supporting a mixed economy of provision across public, private and third sectors to support delivery across Scotland.

In the unfortunate event of any employees facing redundancy, the Scottish Government will always offer and provide support through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations, Partnership Action for Continuing Employment, PACE which aims to minimise the time individuals affected by redundancy are out of work.

As members of the PACE Partnership, STF will be familiar with the local support available to its members and the swift response it offers to support both employers and employees dealing with redundancy and working with them to try and minimise the risk of redundancy before it happens.

The full-time equivalent (FTE) number of Educational Psychologists since 2007 is shown in the following table.

The most up-to-date data on Flexible Workforce Development Fund (FWDF) spend for Academic Year 22-23, as provided by the Scottish Funding Council to the end of March 2023 and Skills Development Scotland to early June 2023, (rounded to nearest thousand):