Hansard

I thank the many organisations and businesses that have provided helpful briefings ahead of the stage 3 debate, and I also thank them for their work at stage 2. There has been concern out there about the potential impact of the bill on those organisations and businesses, and it has been clear, from speaking to them, that assurances have not been forthcoming.

However, I welcome the constructive way in which the minister has engaged since his appointment, when he inherited the bill from Graeme Dey. I also welcome the Government’s acceptance of amendments at stage 2, and its engagement with a number of amendments that I lodged at stage 2 and which ministers have taken forward at stage 3.

As I stated during the stage 1 debate,

“When Scottish ministers introduced the bill, we on the Conservative benches were open to the reasons and rationale behind it.”—[Official Report, 25 September 2025; c 71.]

However, as we have looked at the bill, it has become clear that it is not going to deliver what ministers suggest that it will.

It is worth reflecting on why the Scottish Government decided to legislate in this area. The independent review of the skills delivery landscape by James Withers in 2023 highlighted the need to focus on a new vision that meets the challenges of future needs. Principally, it looked towards the need to deliver flexibility across post-school learning systems in order to achieve genuine agility and to ensure that learners at all stages of their lives, across Scotland, have the opportunity to gain skills and take up potential apprenticeship opportunities.

I am sorry to say that the reality is that the bill does not reflect real delivery of the Withers’ report. From the outset, we have challenged ministers to go further and for the bill to be more radical. As Russell Findlay outlined two weeks ago, the Scottish Conservatives want to see economic growth at the heart of every Scottish Government decision, with a Government that is always on the side of the entrepreneur and the innovator and that is ambitious and aspirational for the small businesses that make our country tick.

We want our apprenticeship system to be more responsive and agile. That is what we have been working to try to achieve. The Scottish Conservatives want to see an apprenticeship system that works with businesses to deliver more apprenticeship places. Crucially, we want to address, rather than simply discuss, the huge skills shortages in the sectors that we hear about week in and week out.

That is why we wanted the bill to go further to empower sectors to create more opportunities and focus on a demand-led approach. We wanted a bill that would help to provide training and retraining opportunities in Scottish firms, which would be at the heart of shaping skills development, as well as the courses that will be crucial for a host of sectors if we are to realise the potential of many growth areas in our economy. The Scottish Conservatives wanted the bill to do more than simply change how apprenticeships are administered in Scotland. We hoped that it would be an opportunity to seriously address the growing skills shortages and gaps that exist across so many of our key sectors, which are vital for the future of our economy and this country’s prosperity.

I turn to the concerns that were raised during the Education, Children and Young People Committee’s scrutiny of the bill. We on the Conservative benches continue to have serious concerns about the potential transfer costs. I note that the minister’s letter to the committee estimates that the

“total cost over these six years now ranges from £2.1 million to £28.1 million, with a central estimate of £15.1 million”.

That remains a significant concern. I want every Scottish apprenticeship pound to go to the delivery of more apprenticeship places and opportunities, rather than expensive structural changes. I am also disappointed that, during the debate, the Government has not accepted the need for more and better transparency around the apprenticeship levy.

We on the Conservative benches also agree with the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland, which we have been working with. It believes that the bill lacks a systemic evidenced-based approach, and that there has been insufficient engagement with key partners, especially local authorities and employers. There are financial risks to successful existing programmes such as foundation apprenticeships, and the bill has the potential to negatively impact young people, particularly the most disadvantaged and those who are furthest away from the education system. The concerns that the association has expressed have not been taken forward. I hope that ministers will not see the bill as an end point; work needs to be done to protect apprenticeship places, especially foundation apprenticeships, as has been raised during the debate.

The Scottish Conservatives hoped that the bill would be a genuine opportunity for a culture shift across our education and skills system. We hoped that current working relationships within our college sector, as part of the wider tertiary sector, could be more collaborative, so that colleges could be empowered to become the drivers of change, rather than merely receiving funding. Empowering our college sector to deliver opportunities in local areas needs to be reconsidered. Audit Scotland has said that the college sector has seen a 17 per cent reduction in real-terms funding in the past three years alone, which has resulted in colleges having to deliver significant annual savings, with fewer students and fewer lecturers.

The Scottish Conservatives will work to make sure that the next Government and the Parliament in its next session genuinely develop a skills bill. We would propose bold and practical measures to invest in our colleges, fix Scotland’s broken apprenticeship system, address skills shortages and allow local employers to shape training to match their workforce needs, as others in different parts of the United Kingdom can. Sadly, this bill has been a missed opportunity for the Government and the Parliament to take forward significant legislation that would deliver for our skills sector. That is why the Scottish Conservatives will not be able to support the bill at decision time.