Education, Children and Young People Committee 03 December 2025 [Draft]
I refer back to what I said about the letter of guidance and the stage 2 discussions that we have had on how the apprenticeship committee will direct the SFC’s considerations with regard to the deployment and implementation of funding for apprenticeships. I will say a bit more about those points later, so I ask Stephen Kerr to bear with me.
Amendment 103, in the name of Miles Briggs, would require 75 per cent of any grants made by the SFC for Scottish apprenticeships and work-based learning to be given to colleges of further education. That would represent a significant change of emphasis from the current model, in which the majority of training is provided through independent training providers.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the distribution of funding between the public and private sectors, it would not be appropriate to set a limit in legislation. I go back to my previous point about flexibility. As it stands, amendment 103 would make a smooth transition to the SFC on 1 April 2027 difficult.
Let me turn to other topics covered in this group of amendments. Amendment 94, in the name of Stephen Kerr, seeks to ensure that every young person between the ages of 16 and 24 who is not in full-time education or employment
“is offered access to a publicly-funded Scottish apprenticeship or work-based learning opportunity.”
Although I understand that, in lodging the amendment, Stephen Kerr seeks to be useful, it would be very difficult for any Government to guarantee what he is asking for, not least because it would depend on there being employers and sufficient jobs, apprenticeships and work-based learning opportunities available. I noted the exchange between John Mason and Stephen Kerr in that regard. I appreciate that there is significant demand at the moment, but we must legislate in a way that caters for the circumstances of the future as well as for the short term.
I am supportive of the principles behind amendment 96, in the name of Stephen Kerr. Providing pathways for unemployed persons, people seeking to change careers and people at risk of being excluded from the labour market is entirely sensible; however, making selective provision would cut across the overarching duty on the SFC to secure coherent provision. A similar argument applies to amendment 97.
Amendment 98, in the name of Stephen Kerr, seeks to ensure that steps are taken to expand the range of graduate apprenticeships and frameworks. That might be the right approach in practice, but we would not want to constrain ourselves in primary legislation. In the future, it might be more efficient to have, say, fewer broader frameworks rather than a proliferation of frameworks. Hypothetically, a broad framework that covered the health professions might be preferred over a number of frameworks covering individual professions. We must create capacity for flexibility.
Again, I share the ambition behind amendment 99, in the name of Stephen Kerr, for year-on-year growth in the number of apprenticeships. However, it is important to note that there are certain constraints on the number of apprenticeships that the Government and the Parliament simply cannot control, including whether employers are willing to take them on. In a recession, businesses might be reluctant to hire, so it might be harder to secure the number of apprenticeship starts.