Chamber
Plenary, 03 Sep 2008
03 Sep 2008 · S3 · Plenary
Item of business
Scottish Government's Programme
We are pressed for time, so I will concentrate on skills and their all-too-brief mention in section 5 of the Government document.
No one would disagree that, as Alex Neil just said, the economic conditions that we face in Scotland are among the most challenging for many years. Equipping Scots with the tools to meet the challenge head-on should be a key priority for any Scottish Government. If we are going to compete globally, we need high-quality skills to be maintained and further developed.
I spent the summer recess meeting constituents across Mid Scotland and Fife, private sector companies and UK-wide organisations, who are all deeply concerned about the lack of sufficient funding for, in particular, adult apprenticeships in the vast majority of sectors. I met training providers who are concerned about the cut in funding for adult apprenticeships and who fear that the term "skills utilisation", which is frequently used by the Government and is indeed mentioned in today's document, is really about dismantling the apprenticeship system as we know it.
I met the sector skills council, Creative and Cultural Skills, which is making huge strides at UK level in developing opportunities for school leavers entering apprenticeships and for adult apprenticeships. However, no similar support is available in Scotland, which means that creative industries in areas such as Edinburgh, Fife, Aberdeen and Glasgow will lag behind those in the rest of the UK. It is not about the levers that we have; it is about what we do with them.
On a personal note, I met a constituent—Jacqueline Winski—who had a very personal story to tell about how gaining new skills had changed her life and provided her with an opportunity to play a key role in a successful family jewellery business. She is devastated that no money is available to help to support her small business to train and develop staff because adult apprenticeship funding has been cut for all sectors other than engineering and construction. She is devastated because she knows from personal experience the difference that upskilling makes not only to her small business but to the lives of the people who undertake the training, by making them more employable for the future.
For the record, let me say that I have no problem with the Government increasing funding for adult apprenticeships in engineering and construction, but it should not be done at the expense of other areas such as information technology, tourism and management. Those are key areas of our economy—a diverse economy that is essential to Scotland's international standing.
The removal of funding for training our next generation of managers is especially worrying because management skills especially need to be developed on the job—at the coal face. Anyone who knows anything about improving productivity will say that we need a highly skilled population of managers and leaders. People who know the industry but also have the skills to manage effectively will ensure that Scotland can face up to the stiff global competition for work that we face now and in the future. The fact that the Government has chosen not to prioritise skills in its document makes me extremely disappointed and worried.
I had intended to mention vocational training and the OECD report, but unfortunately I do not have enough time. Instead, I will concentrate on the debate that we had on the skills strategy on 22 May this year. "Moving Scotland Forward" highlights the skills strategy as the platform for making progress on skills in Scotland. On 22 May, Parliament gave a clear instruction to the Government to produce a revamped skills strategy. The motion that was passed that day called on the Scottish Government to ensure that the revamped strategy contained detailed information on the 50,000 training places that it promised to provide between 2007 and 2011, and outlined how access would be
"provided to high quality vocational education for all school pupils aged 14 or above."—[Official Report, 22 May 2008; c 8990.]
The motion also said that the revamped strategy should set targets for the expansion of apprenticeships and, most importantly, should contain the performance indicators that would be used to measure the strategy's success. Such indicators were missing from the original strategy.
Today we have heard little on skills from the Government or, unfortunately, from other parties in the Parliament, and there is no indication that the promised revamped strategy will appear any time soon. I assure all my parliamentary colleagues that there was no overtly political reason for asking the Government to produce a revised strategy. When the original strategy was rejected last September, it was a logical conclusion that the Government would have to reassure Parliament that it would reconsider it. Opposition parties are genuinely concerned that one of the main economic levers that the Scottish Parliament has at its disposal is not being used to its full potential.
Margaret Curran mentioned a new politics. Colleagues tell me that the Parliament has become increasingly partisan over the past 16 months. As someone who was elected only last May, I cannot say that with any confidence, but I can say that although I understand—but do not agree with—the SNP Government's desire to do things differently from the UK Government at every turn, it is vital that the Parliament and Alex Salmond's Government put this country's interests first at all times.
In the debate on 22 May, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning said:
"We need Scottish solutions for a Scottish skills system."—[Official Report, 22 May 2008; c 8867.]
From what I have seen in front of me today, it is not just on skills but on the economy and jobs that we need that.
No one would disagree that, as Alex Neil just said, the economic conditions that we face in Scotland are among the most challenging for many years. Equipping Scots with the tools to meet the challenge head-on should be a key priority for any Scottish Government. If we are going to compete globally, we need high-quality skills to be maintained and further developed.
I spent the summer recess meeting constituents across Mid Scotland and Fife, private sector companies and UK-wide organisations, who are all deeply concerned about the lack of sufficient funding for, in particular, adult apprenticeships in the vast majority of sectors. I met training providers who are concerned about the cut in funding for adult apprenticeships and who fear that the term "skills utilisation", which is frequently used by the Government and is indeed mentioned in today's document, is really about dismantling the apprenticeship system as we know it.
I met the sector skills council, Creative and Cultural Skills, which is making huge strides at UK level in developing opportunities for school leavers entering apprenticeships and for adult apprenticeships. However, no similar support is available in Scotland, which means that creative industries in areas such as Edinburgh, Fife, Aberdeen and Glasgow will lag behind those in the rest of the UK. It is not about the levers that we have; it is about what we do with them.
On a personal note, I met a constituent—Jacqueline Winski—who had a very personal story to tell about how gaining new skills had changed her life and provided her with an opportunity to play a key role in a successful family jewellery business. She is devastated that no money is available to help to support her small business to train and develop staff because adult apprenticeship funding has been cut for all sectors other than engineering and construction. She is devastated because she knows from personal experience the difference that upskilling makes not only to her small business but to the lives of the people who undertake the training, by making them more employable for the future.
For the record, let me say that I have no problem with the Government increasing funding for adult apprenticeships in engineering and construction, but it should not be done at the expense of other areas such as information technology, tourism and management. Those are key areas of our economy—a diverse economy that is essential to Scotland's international standing.
The removal of funding for training our next generation of managers is especially worrying because management skills especially need to be developed on the job—at the coal face. Anyone who knows anything about improving productivity will say that we need a highly skilled population of managers and leaders. People who know the industry but also have the skills to manage effectively will ensure that Scotland can face up to the stiff global competition for work that we face now and in the future. The fact that the Government has chosen not to prioritise skills in its document makes me extremely disappointed and worried.
I had intended to mention vocational training and the OECD report, but unfortunately I do not have enough time. Instead, I will concentrate on the debate that we had on the skills strategy on 22 May this year. "Moving Scotland Forward" highlights the skills strategy as the platform for making progress on skills in Scotland. On 22 May, Parliament gave a clear instruction to the Government to produce a revamped skills strategy. The motion that was passed that day called on the Scottish Government to ensure that the revamped strategy contained detailed information on the 50,000 training places that it promised to provide between 2007 and 2011, and outlined how access would be
"provided to high quality vocational education for all school pupils aged 14 or above."—[Official Report, 22 May 2008; c 8990.]
The motion also said that the revamped strategy should set targets for the expansion of apprenticeships and, most importantly, should contain the performance indicators that would be used to measure the strategy's success. Such indicators were missing from the original strategy.
Today we have heard little on skills from the Government or, unfortunately, from other parties in the Parliament, and there is no indication that the promised revamped strategy will appear any time soon. I assure all my parliamentary colleagues that there was no overtly political reason for asking the Government to produce a revised strategy. When the original strategy was rejected last September, it was a logical conclusion that the Government would have to reassure Parliament that it would reconsider it. Opposition parties are genuinely concerned that one of the main economic levers that the Scottish Parliament has at its disposal is not being used to its full potential.
Margaret Curran mentioned a new politics. Colleagues tell me that the Parliament has become increasingly partisan over the past 16 months. As someone who was elected only last May, I cannot say that with any confidence, but I can say that although I understand—but do not agree with—the SNP Government's desire to do things differently from the UK Government at every turn, it is vital that the Parliament and Alex Salmond's Government put this country's interests first at all times.
In the debate on 22 May, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning said:
"We need Scottish solutions for a Scottish skills system."—[Official Report, 22 May 2008; c 8867.]
From what I have seen in front of me today, it is not just on skills but on the economy and jobs that we need that.
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