Chamber and committees

The Individual Learning Account (ILA) is a funding stream which allows recipients to access eligible provision. An ILA in itself will not count as a positive destination for the purposes of youth employment figures. However, individual courses undertaken will be assessed on their own merits in line with the existing definition of a positive destination.

Statistics on the positive destinations of young people are collected through a survey of leavers run by Skills Development Scotland. This identifies the destination of a young person including whether or not they are in employment. These statistics are not used to measure youth employment. Statistics on youth employment come from the Labour Force Survey which is the official source of information on a range of labour market related statistics.

The Individual Learning Account (ILA) is a funding stream which allows recipients to access a wide range of eligible provision. Individuals are not considered to be in (a) education or (b) training on the opening of an ILA account. They may however be considered to be in (a) education or (b) training whilst participating on an ILA funded course, dependent on the specific course undertaken.

The Social Enterprise and Third Sector Challenge Fund will open for applications from social enterprises and third sector organisations on 21 June. It is expected that announcements of awards of funding will be made at the end of August, once the assessment process has been completed. Each bid will quantify the number of young people who will be supported.

The fund is an acknowledgment of the distinct role and expertise of the third sector and social enterprises, and young people from across Scotland will benefit from the opportunities created.

The number of individuals receiving ILA funding in each year was:

Number of Individuals

Year
2009-10	43,908
2010-11	57,881
2011-12	54,082

In December 2011, the government announced it would support 1,000 of the most disadvantaged young people, including care leavers and young carers, to enter the labour market. The £1.5 million will be split over three years and will create around 330 opportunities per year. An Employer Recruitment Incentive of £1,500 is available.

Skills Development Scotland is currently working with appropriate partners to roll out and implement this scheme.

The current Individual Learning Account application form does not capture whether applicants are undertaking any form of education. The information requested is therefore not available.

The number of people with a degree level education who received ILA funding in each year was:

Number of Individuals

Year
2009-10	7,594
2010-11	9,614
2011-12	8,233

Please note that completion of this field on the ILA application form is not mandatory. The figures above are therefore based on applications where data was entered in this field.

The Individual Learning Account programme provides up to £200 per year towards the cost of learning for eligible individuals. We have no plans to change the level of annual funding per person.

The Individual Learning Account (ILA) programme is demand-led. As such, it is the level of demand which will dictate how many people receive ILA funding in current and future years.

The amount spent on the ILA programme in each year was:

Year	Spend
2009-10	£9,871,000
2010-11	£11,776,000
2011-12	£10,267,000