Meeting of the Parliament 20 January 2026
As in the stage 1 debate, I thank the committee clerks, the witnesses, the ministers—former and present—and the officials. I also thank my fellow committee members for their work in scrutinising the bill. As members can imagine, there was more work to be done as we moved from the general principles of the bill to the nitty-gritty, so I add a little more thanks to reflect that.
I am disappointed—but not surprised—that some members are not supporting the bill. I am not surprised, because, in the two years that I have been on the committee, I do not think that Labour has yet supported a stage 1 general principles report. It does not matter what the subject of a bill is—Labour will amend it a great deal, but it will not support it.
However, I will repeat what I said at the start of my stage 1 speech on the bill. So often in the chamber, we talk about Scotland’s future and building a better country for the next generation. The bill is not just about building a future for the next generation but about ensuring that they have the skills and knowledge to build their own future.
Of course, the bill is not only about young folk. There are plenty of people who enter or re-enter tertiary education and training later in life for all sorts of reasons. Goodness knows that there are plenty of people in the Aberdeen area who have had to reskill and retrain in recent years, first because of the downturn that was caused by oil prices being too low and then because of the downturn that was caused by the windfall tax because oil prices were briefly too high.
Thankfully, the Scottish Government has stepped up to support training and retraining in our city, not least through its oil and gas transition training fund and by helping to fund North East Scotland College’s energy transition skills hub. That means that, whether the workers in my Aberdeen Donside constituency work in oil and gas or in renewables, they will continue to have the skills that are needed to power our nation and economy.
Let us get back to the bill that is in front of us. The bill will ensure that funding goes where it matters most: to supporting skills, to driving innovation, to ensuring that our economy has the talented workforce that it needs and to giving every learner the opportunity to thrive. Our colleges, universities and other training providers are tasked with equipping people—whether they are young people who are leaving school or those who want to retrain and take a new path—with the skills and qualifications that they can use to find their way in life, whether they use those to find a good-quality, well-paid job, to establish their own business or even to find a voluntary role. Folk want to contribute to our economy and to our society. The bill will help them to get the skills that they need.
Colleges, universities, apprenticeships and other training all help folk to improve their skill set. Therefore, it seems appropriate that I should talk about how the bill has itself been improved since it was first introduced. I will list some of the amendments that have been included in the bill. The bill now allows for a review of the credit-based funding model for colleges. There will now be a requirement for governing body members and senior officers at institutions to declare conflicts of interest.
More will be done to ensure that further and higher education institutions operate with transparency and accountability as a condition of funding. More will be done to protect whistleblowers and to ensure that there is better engagement with trade unions and students. New powers will also be introduced for the SFC to limit fees for apprenticeship managing agents.
Let us get on with it. Let us get the bill passed. Let us modernise how money gets to colleges, universities and training providers. Let us ensure that folk can get the skills and training that they need. Let us support our learners to better themselves so that they can go on to build a better Scotland.
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