Chamber and committees

Transport Scotland commissioned a comprehensive transport appraisal, in line with the Scottish Transport Appraisal Guidance, which involved exploring and assessing the specification of the next Northern Isles Ferry Services contract. The report was published on 25 April 2018.

Transport Scotland, in partnership with key stakeholders, jointly commissioned Inter-Island Transport Studies for Orkney and Shetland. The studies undertook a STAG appraisal across the Councils’ internal air and ferry networks and reports were published in late 2016.

I assigned Highlands and Islands Airports Limited the task of considering what air services in the Highlands and Islands could and should look like in the future. HIAL will shortly carry out a consultation seeking views on what their strategy should look like over the coming period.

The Scottish Government remains committed to growing Modern Apprenticeships to 30,000 new starts by 2020. On 11 January 2018, I announced that going forward Graduate Apprenticeships will be included as part of this number following successful piloting.

In addition, we are expanding the number of Foundation Apprenticeships, with our target to provide 5,000 Foundation Apprentice places by 2019.

Apprenticeship figures will be announced annually going forward. In 2018-19 we have set a target of 28,000 Modern Apprenticeship starts up from our target of 27,000 Modern Apprenticeship starts in 2017-18. For Foundation Apprenticeships we will fund a projected projected 2,600 starts in 2018-19, an increase on the 1,245 starts in 2017-18.

The Career Education Standard 3-18 supports children and young people to identify their own strengths and consider their aspirations earlier. It also supports them to become aware of the areas they may need to develop to pursue the careers of their choice and guides them in making important decisions about subjects, pathways, future learning and job opportunities, including those relating to STEM sectors.

A key aim of our STEM Education and Training Strategy for Scotland is to inspire young people to study STEM and develop the specialist skills they need for future careers. The Strategy makes clear reference to delivery of the Career Education Standard and includes actions to ensure that young people are provided with up-to-date advice on STEM careers. This includes the development of STEM-specific Labour Market Information by Skills Development Scotland for careers advisers, teachers and other practitioners, which will be accessed through the My World of Work web service .

The Youth Employment Strategy, Developing the Young Workforce (DYW), provides an integrated approach across education, training and employment to broaden and improve the quality of opportunities available to young people in order to equip them with the skills they need for the current and anticipated job market. The STEM Strategy aligns with DYW and commits to supporting the establishment of effective school-employer partnerships for STEM, which will help to broaden young people’s awareness of STEM careers. In addition, the impartial Skills Development Scotland careers information and guidance service aims to support young people to become career planners who can make informed and confident decisions about their future.

Through implementation of Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce, the Scottish Government’s national skills agency, Skills Development Scotland continue to prioritise STEM apprenticeships as part of Apprenticeship contracting arrangements.

Our ambition was further supported through publication, of the Scottish Government STEM strategy in October 2017, which brings together actions being taken to ensure that Scotland has a highly educated and skilled population equipped with the STEM skills, knowledge and capability required to adapt and thrive in the fast-paced changing world and economy around us. The Strategy prioritises STEM in the expansion of the apprenticeship family to reflect labour market demand.

The Scottish Government and its partners undertake a wide range of activity to encourage the uptake of our apprenticeship offer, with a focus on young people.

Through our Developing the Young Workforce activity we promote apprenticeship opportunities to school students, employers and parents. Skills Development Scotland deliver Career Information, Advice and Guidance (CIAG) within all Local Authority secondary schools. CIAG services for individuals post-school are delivered through Skills Development Scotland public access centres.

Skills Development Scotland takes a number proactive steps to encourage more people into apprenticeships by having an overall marketing strategy which looks at presenting apprenticeships as an option for all ages. This includes:

•  The promotion of Apprenticeships via Skills Development Scotland’s web service, ‘Apprenticeships.Scot’, which supports work based learning and provides a focus for advertising opportunities.
•  Scottish Apprenticeship Week, is the national campaign aimed at showcasing the benefits of work based learning, and is comprised of events taking place across the country supported by a dedicated media campaign.
•  The annual Scottish Apprenticeship Awards are held in November, recognising the achievements of individual employers and their apprentices and further promoting the benefits of apprenticeships.

The Scottish Government is also expanding the number of Foundation Apprenticeships, to equip more young people at school with industry recognised qualifications, skills and the practical experience that industry demands, both now and in the future. Pupils completing a Foundation Apprenticeship have the opportunity to apply for an accelerated entry onto a related Modern Apprenticeship.

Despite the relatively recent introduction of Foundation Apprenticeships in 2016, in a short period of time we have rapidly grown the number of opportunities from a standing start, to deliver an increase of over 640% in the numbers between 2016 and 2018. Since their introduction, Foundation Apprenticeships have increased from 346 in 2016, to 1,245 in 2017 and to 2,600 in 2018.

The Scottish Government is committed to fulfilling our ambitious targets of 5000 Foundation Apprenticeships in 2019, and the further embedding of FAs in the curriculum of schools across the country. Foundation Apprenticeships are already available in schools in each of the 32 local authority areas.

To encourage those over 25 to undertake Apprenticeships in addition to continuing our commitment to implement Scotland’s Youth Employment Strategy: ‘Developing the Young Workforce’, in 2018-2019 we are also delivering a range of measures to provide access to apprenticeships for the over 25s including:

•  An increase in the number of Modern Apprenticeships Frameworks that can be supported for apprentices aged over 25.
•  Enhanced contribution rates for disabled people and those with experience of care up to the age of 29.
•  An increase in Graduate Apprenticeships which are not age restricted.

Published 2016-2017 annual Apprenticeship statistics , showed 24% of new Modern Apprenticeship starts were in the 25+ age group.

Information relating to academic year 2018-2019 will become available following its commencement. Skills Development Scotland aim to publish an updated Foundation Apprenticeships report at the end of this year. At that stage a comparison with 2017-2018 will be available.

According to Scottish Funding Council (SFC) figures, there has been an increase of around 30% in the number of senior phase enrolments on vocational courses since DYW was introduced.

All colleges (with the exception of specialist colleges Newbattle Abbey College and Sabhal Mòr Ostaig) now offer SPVP enrolments.

Education Scotland are working with individual schools and colleges to review variability and to ensure the right breadth of opportunities are available in all schools.

The following table lists the proportion of secondary schools, broken down by Local Authority, offering vocational options in college: