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We know that demand among employers for apprentices is higher than the number of apprentices that we can fund through the Skills Development Scotland funding for modern apprenticeships.
FlexibleWorkforceDevelopmentFund and long-term planning The Committee shares the concerns regarding the negative impact of the removal of the FlexibleWorkforceDevelopmentFund and invites the Scottish Government to respond to 3 calls from colleges and the business sector and from the SFC, to reinstate this fund in the forthcoming budget.
We would like assurance that funding to replace any significant reduction in FTs will not be at the expense of other areas of economic development spend.
As you have heard through your evidence sessions, there are many flexibilities which the Scottish Funding Council has been discussing for many years, including multi-year funding settlements and year end flexibilities, along with rationalisation of funding pots (which was also discussed in the Withers review).
Questions and Answers
Date answered:
20 November 2023
The main findings may make stark and uncomfortable reading – • the childminding workforce had declined by 26% (1457 childminders) in the last 5 years (2016-21) • continuing slow progress in including childminders in delivering funded ELC – • only 4% of childminders were delivering funded ELC to eligible two-year- olds (no change since 2019).
As you know, I have in the past asked quite a lot of questions on behalf of the college sector about when it might have clarity on the flexibleworkforcedevelopmentfund. Disappointingly for colleges and for me, you wrote to us on 20 and 21 December 2023 to confirm that the fund has been cut.