Chamber and committees

In academic years 2010-11 and 2011-12, under the Postgraduate Students’ Allowances Scheme (PSAS) eligible students could receive an allowance of up to £3,400 towards the cost of their tuition fees (£1,700 for part-time students).

In 2009-10, in addition to the contribution towards their tuition fees as outlined for 2010-11 and 2011-12, eligible students could also apply for a means tested living costs grant. The maximum amounts available to students on a standard 30 week course in 2009-10 were:

£2,850 – for students living in their parent’s home.

£3,770 – for students living away from home.

£4,780 – for students living away from home in London.

For students studying over 30 weeks and three days they were entitled to an additional £45, £76 or £98 per week respectively.

We have allowed for loans of up to £17 million in each of the next three years for the postgraduate tuition fee loan.

Unemployment levels for 16 to 24 year olds in Scotland are published by the Office for National Statistics on a monthly basis, covering rolling quarters. The latest monthly figures were published on 18 April covering the period December to February 2012.

Estimates for 20 to 24 year olds are only available on a quarterly basis from the disaggregated Labour Force Survey (LFS) datasets.

Based on the latest available quarterly LFS data covering October to December 2011, it is estimated that 56,000 people aged 20 to 24 were unemployed in Scotland.

Youth Employment Scotland comprises of a series of commitments to support young people on which we have made the following progress:

Over 25,000 modern apprenticeship starts in 2011-12 and a commitment to provide at least 25,000 modern apprenticeship opportunities in each of the next four years of this Parliament;

An additional £30 million of investment to offer employment support for young people announced by the First Minister in December 2011, and

Protecting college places and further education student support levels in academic year 2012-13.

The methodology used to identify the areas in receipt of funding focussed on those areas with both the highest numbers of unemployed 16 to 24 year olds and the highest 16 to 24 year old unemployment rates. All six areas are in the top 10 local authority areas on both measures.

Officials are meeting each local authority during April to agree the actions each local authority plans to take and how those actions will achieve additional positive outcomes for young unemployed people.

Skills for Scotland: Accelerating the Recovery and increasing Sustainable Economic Growth was published in October 2010.

Skills policy also features strongly throughout the updated Scottish Economic Recovery Plan published in February 2011 and the Government Economic Strategy refreshed in September 2011.

The £50 million Young Scots Fund is a manifesto commitment covering the five year term of this Parliament. £25.4 million has been allocated to the fund in the current Spending Review period for the three financial years 2012-13 to 2014-15.

The focus of the Young Scots Fund is support for emerging young talent in sport, enterprise and creativity. I have already announced funding of £3 million for the National Conservation Centre to be established by Historic Scotland in Stirling to train young people in the traditional skills needed to sustain Scotland’s historic environment; and £5 million for the National Centre for Youth Arts in Glasgow.

The Minister for Youth Employment has also announced that £2 million of the Young Scots fund will be used to support Opportunities for All through the Youth Employment Commonwealth Games Skills Legacy fund.

Announcements of further allocations will be made in due course.

The experiences and outcomes under health and wellbeing within Curriculum for Excellence outline expectations for learning around respect, positive relationships, access to support and rights and responsibilities. In addition, the experiences and outcomes under technologies within Curriculum for Excellence outline expectations for learning around safe and acceptable conduct when using different technologies to interact and share information with others. It is for schools and local authorities to decide how to take learning forward in both of these curricular areas.

The Scottish Government funds the national anti-bullying service, respectme, who provide free training on cyberbullying for parents and professionals, informed by their research with 4,000 children and young people on cyberbullying. Respectme campaigns at a national level to raise awareness of bullying behaviour and its impact on children and young people. Their current campaign focuses on cyberbullying. Respectme also provide a range of information for parents and carers on their website on all aspects of bullying including cyberbullying and are currently developing a new resource on cyberbullying for children and young people.

Education Scotland has also developed a range of materials and information for parents and carers about internet safety and responsible use which are available on their website.

The Scottish Advisory Group on Behaviour in Schools, which provides advice to national and local government on all aspects of behaviour in schools, includes representation from trade unions. Cyberbullying has been discussed at the group.

The Scottish Government co-ordinates and regularly meets with the Scottish Anti-Bullying Steering Group, which includes representatives from Youth Scotland, LGBT Youth Scotland and Children’s Parliament, to discuss all aspects of anti-bullying work, including work to tackle cyberbullying.

In partnership with the Scottish Anti-Bullying Steering Group, the Scottish Government published A National Approach to Anti-Bullying for Scotland’s Children and Young People in November 2010. This approach indicates that bullying can be understood as behaviour which leaves people feeling helpless, frightened, anxious, depressed or humiliated. The approach states that bullying behaviour may include:

name calling, teasing, putting down or threatening

ignoring, leaving out or spreading rumours

hitting, tripping, kicking

stealing and damaging belongings

sending abusive, text, email or instant messages

making people feel like they are being bullied or fearful of being bullied

targeting someone because of who they are or are perceived to be.

Where this behaviour occurs over the internet or by mobile phone, it is commonly referred to as ‘cyberbullying’.