Calls for ‘greater transparency’ in Scottish apprenticeship system

Scotland’s electrical trade association Select and the Scottish Electrical Charitable Training Trust (SECTT) have announced support for plans to move funding and functions for national training programmes and apprenticeships from Skills Development Scotland (SDS) to the Scottish Funding Council (SFC). 

However, both bodies have warned that the move must lead to “greater transparency and streamlined funding opportunities” that are open equally to all training providers in the management of apprenticeship training.

In response to the Scottish government’s call for views on the proposals, Select and SECTT said there must be “a party of esteem among all stakeholders” if the draft Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill is to succeed.

According to the bodies, the new set-up should aim to support a mixed economy of delivery partners and the role of managing agents should be explicitly included in the definition of an apprenticeship “to ensure that further and higher education requirements do not dominate”.

They also said consideration should be given to the idea of introducing incentives to “encourage employers, especially small employers, to invest in accredited training and safeguard future recruitment numbers”.

In the response, they insisted the Bill should also aim to ring-fence all revenue from the apprenticeship levy for investment in skills and “legislate to revise the apprenticeship funding contribution to make more costly programmes more financially viable for sector training providers to offer”.

They added: “While we feel that the Bill lacks detail in some areas, we support the proposed terms of appointment for Council members and endorse the move away from appointing actively employed further education/higher education representatives, minimising potential conflicts of interest.

“We believe the Bill should aim to improve transparency, streamline funding opportunities and ensure fair and proportional allocation of resources. It should also ensure that standard setting organisations are included in development processes and clarify who will be involved in developing National Occupational Standards (NOS) and qualifications.”

In addition, the bodies expressed support for broadening the skill set of SFC members to include expertise in Scottish apprenticeships and work-based learning, and for the establishment of an Apprenticeship Committee. 

Fiona Harper, chief executive of SECTT, said: “Our hope is that the Bill will simplify and refine the apprenticeship management process while maintaining a robust operational infrastructure so that SECTT, with the support of Select, can continue to deliver the gold-standard apprenticeship on behalf of the industry.”