3. To ask the Scottish Government how it is working with universities and colleges to address the reported skills gap across the economy. (S6O-02944)

As I confirmed to Parliament last month, and as per the recommendations made by James Withers in his report, the Scottish Government will take on skills planning at national level and will support the development of skills planning at the regional level. In so doing, we recognise that we must better align what is offered by the education and skills system with the strategic skills needs of the economy.

We are developing those approaches in close collaboration with colleges and universities and with others, particularly employers.

I have met many employers in the past year, and they consistently raise the key issue of the lack of skilled labour. What is the Government doing to encourage and support the development of skills, training and apprenticeships? Will the cuts to the Scottish Funding Council’s budget result in fewer college places?

I know that Alex Rowley knows that it is important to differentiate between skills and labour shortages and to determine, as we are doing, what skills are specifically being asked for. That is why I have asked portfolio ministerial colleagues to carry out an exercise to identify the exact nature of current and likely future skills needs and, in so doing, to engage directly with colleges and universities to determine what resources and capacity currently exist to meet those asks and how we can bring all of that together.

My direct conversations with the further and higher education sectors show that there is a strong appetite to develop the better alignment that is in everyone’s interests.

On the particular point about apprenticeships, I assure Alex Rowley that it is our intention to seek to better align those with the economic needs of the country.

The Deputy Presiding Officer:

There are a number of supplementary questions and I will try to get them all in.

Ensuring that there is an alignment between employers’ needs and skills provision in our colleges and universities is essential to tackling skills shortages across the economy. In that light, what work is the Government doing on a sectoral basis and with employers to ensure that the skills required now, and in the future, are identified and that the funding of colleges and universities is aligned with supporting employers’ needs?

Businesses and employers have a crucial role to play in helping to shape the provision in the system. The Government is already engaging with a wide variety of employers to look at the practicalities and options for delivering a more aligned offering. Of course, the skills planning team at Skills Development Scotland is at the forefront of that work.

Ivan McKee is right to highlight the need to approach the issue on a sectoral basis. From my direct engagement with employers, it is already clear to me that some sectors are more progressed than others when it comes to having the detail and specifics that we require in order to move forward. It may be that we pilot approaches as much on a sectoral level as on a geographical level. All that will be looked at in detail at an employers round table, which we will be putting together in the coming months. Learning providers will also be in the room, because we need all sides to be directly involved in order to deliver an agile, aligned and responsive skills and learning system.

According to research from the Fraser of Allander Institute, Scotland’s colleges boosted the Scottish economy by more than £8 billion, which is a more than tenfold return on investment.

What impact will last year’s £26 million cut and the proposed £58.7 million cut to the net college resource, which is proposed in the Government’s draft budget, have on that £8 billion contribution?

I think that t he £26 million that Liam Kerr referred to is the transition fund, so it will have no direct impact.

The £58 million that he referred to was, of course, in line with the moneys that were reduced in year. In reality, the current year’s money for the colleges will match almost entirely the substance of their budget for next year.

In an ideal world, we would like to be able to better fund our colleges. If Mr Kerr has any constructive ideas as we go through the budget process, we will be all ears.

With regard to the current skills gap, how is the Scottish Government working with universities and colleges to promote the uptake of modern languages?

The Government is clear that access to learning modern languages is vital at all stages of education to equip children and young people with the skills that they need in an increasingly globalised world.

However, universities are autonomous institutions that are responsible for their course provision. It is for them to decide how to distribute the allocation of funded places between faculties and courses. Similarly, operational decisions, including resourcing and course provision, are matters for individual colleges. In both instances, we would look for that to be done in line with the needs of learners and the local economy.

The Deputy Presiding Officer:

Q uestions 4 and 5 were not lodged.