To ask the Scottish Government how it is collaborating with industry and education providers to create pathways into freight-related careers.
At National level, the Scottish Government is working closely with partners, including the Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland, to deliver the 2025-26 Programme for Government commitment to a new national skills planning approach for skills needs at national and regional levels. New or improved processes will be designed with stakeholder engagement, including employers, colleges, universities, training providers, Enterprise Agencies, and regional partners.
Apprenticeships are a key pathway to careers in the freight sector. Collaboration with employers and other key stakeholders is an integral part of the development, design and re-design of apprenticeships, with organisations strongly encouraged to get involved in apprenticeship development and to help identify demand.
Specifically for freight, Modern Apprenticeship pathways are currently available for Freight Logistics at SCQF levels 5, 6 and 7 via Skills Development Scotland. In 2024-25, Transport and logistics apprenticeship starts were among the top ten starts by occupational grouping in 2024-25, comprising around 3% of total starts. The achievement rate for freight logistics apprenticeships in 2024-25 was 80%, in line with the overall average, demonstrating the success of our education and training providers.
Our 2025 Draft Transport Just Transition Plan highlighted opportunities for workers in decarbonising transport, including the freight sector and, to date, we have invested just over £1.2 million to support Scotland's colleges to move at pace to prepare for the transition and provide relevant training.
In 2023, in collaboration with industry, the Scottish Government established the Zero Emission Truck Taskforce, who published a Decarbonisation Pathway including actions on workforce skills development HGV Decarbonisation - Pathway for Scotland - Zero Emission Truck Taskforce | Transport Scotland.
Following on from this, in 2025 Transport Scotland set up a zero-emission heavy duty vehicle skills forum to help share knowledge among industry and other stakeholders. This covered various topics related to skills and workforce challenges, including attracting and retaining talent.
