Education, Children and Young People Committee 03 December 2025 [Draft]
Good morning. My amendment 95 would add a new definition of work-based learning—it would make it clear that foundation apprenticeships are included in the statutory definition.
Amendments 101 and 102 would ensure that good practice in local authorities is taken into account and that the SFC engages with our local authorities.
On amendment 103, as I outlined last week, the Scottish Conservatives hope that the bill can be an opportunity for a culture shift across our education and skills system so that working relationships with the college sector, as part of the wider tertiary sector, can be more collaborative, and so that colleges are empowered to become drivers of change, rather than merely recipients of funding. Amendment 103 is intended to empower our colleges to deliver opportunities in their local areas and drive forward economic growth.
The SFC’s report, “Financial Sustainability of Colleges in Scotland 2020-21 to 2025-26”, recognises the worsening financial health of Scottish colleges. However, unless the SFC is ultimately given the power to address the financial sustainability of the college sector, the current position is unlikely to change.
Audit Scotland has evidence that there has been a 17 per cent real-terms reduction in funding in the college sector between 2021 and 2025. That has resulted in colleges having to deliver significant annual recurrent savings that will have a material impact on learners and those institutions.
My amendment 103 would provide for the delivery of Scottish apprenticeships or work-based learning through a college-first presumption, with a minimum of a 75 per cent share of grants, loans and other payments being made directly to Scottish colleges in the public sector or a college consortia.
Amendments 110 would change the definition of a training provider by replacing the word “person”—