Education, Children and Young People Committee 03 December 2025 [Draft]
I thank the minister for the intervention and for recognising the desire to make the system better. One of the comments in the letter to the committee from the minister is about the need for more
“due diligence on the implications and risks associated with”
the options
“prior to making a final decision”
on how the IT system will be transferred to the SFC. I take the minister’s point that it is about an IT system, but, ultimately, it is also fair to say that the IT system in question is pretty integral to the delivery of apprenticeships. That is the point.
Amendment 120, in the name of Daniel Johnson, requires the SFC to report on the amount of funding provided, including
“in relation to apprenticeship frameworks, the level of funding provided for an individual Scottish apprenticeship”
and seeks to address the concern around contribution rates being frozen and stakeholders worrying that that could all get lost within an organisation that has a lot else on. As the minister said in his letter, it will require time to be able to do that. Daniel Johnson’s amendment seeks to protect some of that process, make it very transparent and help people to understand where money is changing hands, including between employers and training providers.
Before I conclude my remarks, I note that we will support many other amendments in the group, and where we do not, it is likely that we support the intention of the amendments—there are too many to name in the interest of time—but we have amendments in either my name or Daniel Johnson’s name that seek to do something very similar.