To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to raise awareness of apprenticeship opportunities and promote them as an attractive career path for young people. (S6O-04086)

Skills Development Scotland provides an all-age careers service in every local authority area, with an SDS careers adviser in each school in Scotland to highlight the available careers options, including apprenticeships. SDS also works with partners and employers to highlight the importance of apprenticeships, particularly through Scottish apprenticeship week. We continue to work closely with SDS to support the promotion of apprenticeships throughout Scotland at all times.

As Mr Mason knows, we are actively progressing measures to build on the foundations that we already have in place, thanks to the endeavours of SDS.

It concerns me that there are still a lot of gender stereotypes around apprenticeships. Does he think that schools can tackle that, or is it down to families and peer groups?

Mr Mason makes a very fair point, and there is not an easy answer. One helpful contribution has been the work of the gender commission and the Scottish apprenticeship advisory board. They produced a piece of work addressing all elements of gender prejudice and issues around certain careers right across the spectrum of the post-16 landscape, and I have committed to weaving that work into the wider reform agenda. If Mr Mason has the answer, I would love to hear it, as this is a long-standing problem. He is right about schools, because some of the problems start in schools, where youngsters are told, “That is a boys’ career” or “That is a girls’ career” when it is nothing of the sort. We require, collectively, to try to improve the situation, ensuring that all careers are open to all in our society, with no sort of prejudice against certain careers options depending on gender.

I have received requests for supplementary questions from four members, and I intend to take all four.

How is the Scottish Government working with the higher education sector on the development of graduate apprenticeships, which promote careers in the sectors that are most important for the Scottish economy?

We have established a graduate apprenticeship enhancement group, chaired by Professor Steve Decent, principal and vice-Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University. The group has four workstreams, and a broad range of stakeholders is revisiting the purpose and objective of GAs. That will help to drive future policy, ensuring that the GA strategic direction is in line with wider skills reform and economic priorities.

Graduate apprenticeships have considerable potential for expansion to address skills shortages and to improve workforce retention. Numbers are increasing, but I think that we can increase them further and move the GA offering into other disciplines. I will be guided in that by the export group.

What proposed reforms will the Government seek to bring forward to support employers to develop part-time apprenticeship opportunities, especially given last year’s budget, in which the Scottish Government removed the flexible workforce development fund, which provided £7 million for employers to develop such pathways?

I will commit to meet Miles Briggs to explore that further. I must confess that that is not an issue that I had considered, but I am happy to explore it with him as I think that it might have some merit.

Traditional skills such as stonemasonry are of vital importance across the south of Scotland. There are excellent examples of facilitators, such as the Ridge, a Scottish charitable incorporated organisation in Dunbar, East Lothian. Will the Minister confirm that support for traditional apprenticeships, which frequently come at greater expense than other apprenticeships, will be both supported and championed by the Government?

I agree with Martin Whitfield on the important point that he makes. We tend to talk a lot about emerging job opportunities and future career opportunities for young people. There will always be a demand for traditional skills, and stonemasonry is a case in point. In fact, one might argue that stonemasonry sits in the green skills agenda, because we will need such skills to maintain older buildings. I wish to assure Martin Whitfield that we are absolutely committed to sustaining access to such types of courses and apprenticeships. They may develop or morph into a different offering in future, but that is something that we are absolutely alive to.

Not everyone at school wants to pursue an academic route, and many would thrive in vocational or technical education. Despite discussing that issue for decades, however, we have never really cracked it. I believe that the way that we measure success in schools is part of the reason for that, and I think that we should change the Insight programme. Can the Minister set out what he is planning to do, so that we can finally crack the issue and get vocational education to the level that it deserves to be at?

That is a timely question. As Mr Rennie knows, I am committed to reviewing the foundation apprenticeship offering in schools across the whole of Scotland, as it is quite variable. We now intend to consider that alongside the vocational courses that are being offered in some schools, so that we have a whole, complete picture and can take account of it. We can hopefully come up with a way forward that really delivers for young people for whom that is the best career path to move into. We are actively pursuing that at the moment.