Meeting of the Parliament 25 September 2025
We are, of course, always happy to work with members across the chamber during the progress of any bill and to improve any piece of legislation. We will not support this bill at stage 1, as I will come to describe. However, if the bill passes, of course we will be prepared to work with others to look at ways to make it as good as it can possibly be, as we always will try to do.
Our approach to skills education starts with three simple principles. First, it should be industry led, delivered in partnership with education providers, and employers must have a genuine voice in its design and provision so that our education system matches people with the jobs of today and tomorrow. Yet, as has been mentioned, the Scottish apprenticeship advisory board, whose work has been a well-respected way of doing that, may or may not be wound down—we have no clarity on that. We also have no clarity on what its replacement could be, or a coherent plan to address key public sector skills gaps, such as those in the national health service or in education. Many of those sectors rely on colleges and universities being supported to deliver the skills that are needed in those sectors. We have to reform the system now.
Secondly, the system must be individually focused, flexible and dynamic. The bill will not make it so. Learners of all ages need flexible routes that value technical and vocational learning as much as academic pathways. That means having taster apprenticeships, to improve matching and to reduce dropout rates; teaching Scottish industry standards in the senior phase, so that pupils can see how subject choices connect to real jobs; and offering a digital skills passport, so that employers and other people can recognise skills consistently.
Thirdly, our skills system must deliver opportunity. To do that, we must expand, widen access to and speed up approvals for new apprenticeship frameworks. That will include empowering the speedy development of more apprenticeships, including at graduate level. Students want to earn and learn. Apprenticeships could be a faster route to solving our skills gaps and universities are ready to innovate with them.
All that would help now, and we could do it all now without a lengthy and costly rejig of quangos. We could be using this time to get people into jobs, which would give employers access to the skills that they need and give colleges and universities the money that could save them.
Colleagues, I do not doubt the intent behind consolidation, but Parliament has heard evidence that raises concerns about cost, capacity and risk during the transition. Unison said that the proposals are “fraught with risk”, and Unite the Union and the Public and Commercial Services Union said that they were not consulted properly. All that led the Education, Children and Young People Committee to the conclusion that it could not recommend the bill.
We need change now—urgent, practical, front-line change. The Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill does not do that. It risks pooling resource and focusing on machinery, not delivery. Scottish Labour cannot offer our support for something that will not deliver front-line, tangible change now, especially when what is at stake is whether we will widen opportunity, close skills gaps and grow Scotland’s economy. Those aims are too important to divert time, energy and action from.
15:29