Chamber and committees

I have a last wee question for Nora Senior and a general question for everyone. I will run them together.

Nora Senior and I would agree that competitiveness in business is important. The recent Cumberford-Little report, which was commissioned by the Scottish Government, emphasised a shift towards excellence in skills rather than the focus on competence that we have at the moment. To what extent do you agree with those statements in the report?

What is SDS’s view on how to best keep the knowledge and skills of Government agencies current in the light of the huge global challenges and changes of Brexit and Covid and so on? Has SDS, for example, instigated its own programme of change for its skills base as we emerge from Brexit and Covid? Those are two separate areas, but I am aware of the time.

I have a couple of questions for all the witnesses, which I will run together. First, I will pick up on Colin Beattie’s question regarding international skills. Has the Fraser of Allander Institute or Skills Development Scotland undertaken specific recent analysis comparing Scotland’s skills system to those of our major trading nations, as set out in “A Trading Nation—a plan for growing Scotland’s exports”? In other words, how do we know that Nora Senior’s comment that our skills system is looked on as “best in class” is true?

Secondly, I hold a personal view that international benchmarking is necessary for Scotland’s skills system. Do you agree with that personal view and, if not, why not?

I think that you must have guessed the second area that I want to explore, because it is modern apprenticeships, funnily enough. I am looking at SDS’s most recent quarterly report on modern apprenticeships. Since joining the Parliament, I have been looking at the theme of the different consideration that is given to the role of women, whether in business or skills. I worked out that, comparing the first quarters of 2019-20 and 2021-22, there has been a decline in female enrolments from 47 per cent to 45 per cent. I then looked at the figures for my area, which is Falkirk, where there has been a more dramatic fall from 45 per cent to 35 per cent. That led me to consider what the gaps might be in how we are going about getting women enrolled. Does Chris Brodie or Lisa Pattoni have any thoughts about the reasons for that?

Does anyone else want to come in on those two questions?

Thank you very much.

They were long questions and I ran them together. I merely expressed a view that international benchmarking could be desirable, particularly thinking about Nora Senior’s comment about digital technologies and the threat of competition from digital technologies. We might choose not to benchmark internationally across every sector, but we have already discussed doing that in the emerging sectors. I just wanted to see whether, in principle, you agree with the view that international benchmarking is a good thing.

Nora, I will pick up on Lisa Pattoni’s comment that employers drive the take-up of modern apprenticeships and that they therefore have a role in the figures that I outlined for female enrolments. We both encounter systemic issues in relation to the role of women in business and various other sectors; do you have any final reflections on that point before we move on?

You are on silent, Nora.

I invite SDS to respond my last question, which I appreciate was a slightly cheeky one. I wanted to wind up the session with a bit of fun.

Chris, you are on silent.

I take it from that that you, on behalf of your members and your member organisations, will be reflecting on that matter, given the often long-term nature of property.

Given that diversity makes an economic contribution, what are the SPF’s reflections on supporting women to lead the businesses that it represents?

I assume from that that you might look at the membership of your policy team. When I checked today, I found that your policy team has three women and 23 men, which means that women make up less than 12 per cent.