Meeting of the Parliament 25 October 2023
That is great, and I am reassured by that.
James Withers goes on to say:
“different pathways are simply different: not better, not worse, just different.”
We want to
“consign to the dustbin the outdated view that studying at university is somehow a ‘better’ kind of success.”
We should be proud of our university sector, but there are multiple potential pathways available. Learning happens in schools, colleges, universities, workplaces and elsewhere. We need more of a single integrated system—I agree.
It is unfortunate that Labour’s motion refers to skills shortages but does not mention Brexit. With the best will in the world, neither Scotland nor the UK will ever produce exactly the goods and services that we need. We always need to import and export. In the same way, however good our education and training system is, a flexible international labour market, as the EU provides, allows our people to take up opportunities in other countries and allows others to come and take up opportunities here.
The Government is taking time to consider the Withers review recommendations, and that is right. Withers makes 15 recommendations, some of which are more radical than others. Specifically, recommendation 5 proposes the establishment of a single national funding body, and I have certainly warmed to that proposal. Scotland is a relatively small country, and we should be able to run things in a simpler fashion compared with larger, more bureaucratic countries. My inherent feeling would be to support such a simplification. My only real concern would be to ensure that such a body would operate on the parity of esteem principle and would not favour universities over colleges and modern apprenticeships.
An important point that I make in passing is that we should recognise the skills of migrants.
On the Conservative amendment, I welcome its support for parity of esteem, but I also note its point about
“the shortage of public funding”.
That strikes me as slightly ironic, because the Conservative party is the party that wants lower taxes, which would inevitably mean a greater shortage of public funding—[Interruption.] I am sorry, but I do not have time to give way. As usual, the Conservatives do not suggest where the money should come from.
To finish on a positive note, 93 per cent of school leavers are going into positive destinations. Although we always want to improve those destinations, there are lots of positives in the present Scottish system, and we should not be afraid of celebrating those.
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