Chamber and committees

Do you have a question, Mr Kerr? I am just keeping an eye on the time.

Could you be brief? Other members want to comment.

Okey dokey. I call Stephen Kerr.

Good morning, and welcome to the 26th meeting in 2022 of the Education, Children and Young People Committee. We have received apologies from the convener, Sue Webber, and from Willie Rennie. I welcome Pam Gosal, who is joining the committee today for the public part of the meeting.

The first item on our agenda is a decision on taking business in private. Are members content to take agenda item 7 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

We move to questions. I expect that most, if not all, of the questions will be directed to the minister, but should anyone else wish to come in on any question, please put an R in the chat box. The clerks will monitor the chat box and I will bring you in when I can.

I will start off on the purpose of regionalisation, which was to remove duplication and unnecessary competition between universities and colleges, to enable reforms, to provide a rapid response to current employment and skills challenges, and to create more efficiencies. To what extent have those aims been achieved over the past 10 years?

We know that there are pressures on skills and that we need to respond with the new skills that are required. We heard that in evidence. Are things all right now, or could improvements be made to ensure that colleges can respond more rapidly to fill those skills gaps?

Thank you, Ruth—

Yes—you have a minute.

We have come to the end of our time on the colleges regionalisation inquiry. I thank the minister, all those who have contributed to our evidence sessions and my committee colleagues.

I will suspend the meeting for five minutes to allow for a change of witnesses, before we move on to our next item of business, which is on universities.

Thank you, minister.