Press Releases

SNP ministers will today (Wednesday) be urged to increase the number of modern apprenticeship places by almost 10,000 to boost economic growth, create jobs and allow businesses to expand.

The Scottish Conservatives will lead a debate at Holyrood highlighting the damage being done to the economy by the Nationalists’ 20 per cent real-terms cut to college funding.

They will also call for the number of modern apprenticeship places to rise from the current 25,507 per year, to at least 34,000, which business groups say is needed.

Shadow business and economy secretary Murdo Fraser will cite the stalled growth under the SNP government and employers’ concerns that it is “failing to invest in the training and skills essential for future prosperity”.

He will say the SNP’s financial mismanagement has created an unsustainable funding gap, and, without making growth the central priority, essential services will be unaffordable.

The Scottish Conservatives’ proposals on colleges and apprenticeships would help address the SNP’s “hostile environment” for business, as well as giving greater opportunities to young people and promoting growth.

Scottish Conservative shadow cabinet secretary for business and economy Murdo Fraser said: “Economic growth must be the central priority of government – to put money back in people’s pockets, create jobs and generate the funding for essential services likes schools and hospitals.

“But in their cuts to colleges and the shortfall in the number of apprenticeships we need, John Swinney’s government is failing to invest in the training and skills essential for future prosperity.

“The SNP government’s abysmal mismanagement of Scotland’s finances has resulted in a huge black hole in welfare spending and a deficit twice the size of the rest of the UK, all while Scots pay the highest income tax in the UK and see key services crumbling.

“But their neglect of skills and training is shoring up even worse to come. The SNP are holding Scotland back by creating a hostile environment for business, which is jeopardising growth, jobs and prosperity.

“Our plans to increase the number of apprenticeships to the level business says is needed would provide a sound foundation that would put growth front and centre.”

Notes:

Wording of the motion:

Backing Scotland’s Colleges and Apprenticeships: That the Parliament recognises that future economic growth is reliant on providing the right opportunities to create good jobs that allow businesses to expand; notes with concern the findings of the recent Audit Scotland report, highlighting a 20% real-terms cut in funding to the college sector over the past five years, and believes that this has a negative impact on the economy and limits opportunities for young people to get ahead; acknowledges the concern from business representative groups about the future of apprenticeships, and the harm that a restriction in apprenticeship numbers causes to job creation in Scotland, and calls on the Scottish Government to restore funding to Scotland’s colleges and raise the number of modern apprenticeship places from 25,507 in 2024-25 to at least the 34,000 identified by Skills Development Scotland as necessary to meet Scottish economic growth ambitions.