Hansard

There are two points in Mrs Scanlon’s intervention. The first relates to college places. The Government has taken a conscious decision to deepen the skills that individuals acquire when they go to college. Our commitment was to maintain the full-time equivalent numbers at around 116,000 in further education colleges. We have exceeded that—the number is around 119,000. The purpose of that was to concentrate deliberately on entrenching the skills base to ensure that the productivity gains that I am talking about could be achieved because of a more deeply skilled workforce.

The second point that Mrs Scanlon raised related to STEM and digital skills. She will be aware that, in partnership with the industry, we recently established the new digital skills academy, CodeClan, which is designed specifically to address the issue that Mrs Scanlon raised. I cannot have a conversation with the business community without digital skills and their availability being raised. We realise that the issue is central to the development of the economy, and measures are in place to try to address it. The Government will, of course, continue to reflect on how effectively the issue can be taken forward to ensure that we achieve the objectives.

The strategy that the Government has set out makes it clear that our ambition is to reach the top quartile of OECD countries for productivity, sustainability, inequality and wellbeing. Those are the aims of the Government’s economic strategy.

Our priority with regard to business is to build the conditions for businesses to grow both at home and overseas, and to ensure that Scotland remains a highly attractive location for international investment. One of the first acts of the Scottish Government in 2007 was to establish the most competitive business rates regime in the United Kingdom. We have also supported business by directly maintaining support for our enterprise bodies and, as I have just relayed to Mrs Scanlon, investing in the physical and digital infrastructure and in the skills of our workforce to support that activity. Of course, that work has taken place against the backdrop of the public expenditure challenge that we have faced.

Building on the measures that have been taken over recent years, we announced further measures in our programme for government to update our activities and to reflect changing economic conditions both at home and internationally. Many of those measures were set out in the programme for government debate that has taken place over the past week.

A strong business sector is vital to the creation of a fairer society. The reverse is also true: a fairer society can benefit business into the bargain. That is one of the reasons why we will continue to place a strong emphasis on promoting fair work.

We will promote the real living wage, which makes work pay and reduces poverty. It can also help businesses to increase productivity, reduce absenteeism and improve staff retention. Last year we set a target of 150 living wage accredited companies in Scotland. There are already more than 300 and we are now working on reaching a target of 500 by the dissolution of Parliament.

During the next six months, the fair work convention will create a new framework for the relationship between employers, employees, trade unions, public bodies and the Government. In particular, it will propose and promote employment practices at both the aggregate economy level and within individual businesses, to maximise productivity, including in relation to skills, workplace innovation and job security.

The business pledge is central to our vision of fair work that is founded on a partnership between employers, employees and the Government. The business pledge is a shared mission between the Government and business that has the goal of boosting productivity, competitiveness, fair employment and fair work. By making the pledge, companies demonstrate their commitment to sharing values and to delivering through their actions and future plans. We are making strong progress, with the announcement today of the 100th adopter of the business pledge, Edinburgh-based games development company Blazing Griffin.

Fair work is one strand of our approach to inclusive growth. Raising attainment and eliminating gaps in attainment, the expansion of childcare provision and the wider provision of quality and affordable housing are other key measures in advancing our efforts to tackle inequality in our society.

The Government’s economic strategy has at its heart the determination to create a prosperous economy and an economy that is fair to the individuals in our society. At the heart of our approach is a focus on partnership and shared endeavour. We want to work with businesses and all our partners in the Scottish economy to ensure that our economy continues to grow and, most importantly, creates opportunities for all to flourish.

I move,

That the Parliament welcomes the news that the Scottish economy has experienced its longest period of uninterrupted economic growth since 2001 and has a higher employment rate than the UK as a whole and further welcomes independent forecasts predicting growth of around 2.4% in 2015; endorses the refreshed Scottish Economic Strategy launched earlier this year, which sets out the approach taken by the Scottish Government and wider public sector to achieve a Scottish economy that is characterised by inclusive growth and opportunities for all, and supports the Programme for Government 2015-16, published on 1 September 2015, which sets out the actions that the Scottish Government is taking to foster a supportive business environment, invest in infrastructure and skills and support entrepreneurship, innovation and internationalisation while promoting and expanding fair work and the living wage and raising attainment.