Over a year on from the publication of James Withers’ Independent Review of the Skills Delivery Landscape, Scotland’s post-school education system is unchanged. However, behind the scenes, plans are in motion. The Scottish Government has signalled the first steps toward reform with the publication of a consultation on a proposed Bill to make changes to the public bodies delivering post-school education.
This blog gives an outline of the story so far and sets out what may lie ahead in the coming months.
The road to reform
During the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns around the future sustainability of college and university finances led the Scottish Government to commission the Scottish Funding Council’s (SFC) 2021 Review of Coherent Provision and Sustainability.
The SFC review report set out recommendations for change to the college and university landscape and called on the Scottish Government to establish an overall vision and strategy for further and higher education, increase collaboration between colleges and universities and move to multi-year funding assumptions.
The 2023 Independent Review of the Skills Delivery Landscape carried out by James Withers built on the SFC reviews, setting out further recommendations for transforming the skills delivery landscape. Among the 15 recommendations, the review called for the Scottish Government to:
- take responsibility for skills planning at national level
- create a single funding body bringing together many of the functions of the SFC, Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) and taking in all learning pathways and flexible and part-time modes of study
- introduce a universal skills framework with consistent language around qualifications and develop a clear map of the post-school system to help learners navigate it
- explore greater private sector investment in the post-school learning system, for example through in-work learning opportunities.
In evidence to the Education, Children and Young People (ECYP) Committee on 15 November 2023, James Withers told Members that a ten-year timescale for skills reform is “not unrealistic”, adding that “establishing a vision for what good looks like … should be the north star” so there is clarity about what the reform agenda seeks to achieve.
Renewed purpose
In June 2023, the Scottish Government published ‘Purpose and Principles for Post-School Education’. This is a framework intended to set the policy direction for higher education (HE) and further education (FE). The aim is to ensure that, throughout their lives, people have the:
“… opportunity and means to develop the skills, knowledge, values and attributes to fulfil their potential and to make a meaningful contribution to society.”
The principles of the post-school system are:
- Transparent, Resilient and Trusted: The system is financially and environmentally resilient; trusted to deliver, and subject to effective governance.
- High Quality: High quality opportunities are available for people to enhance their knowledge and skills at the time and place that is right for them.
- Supportive and Equitable: People are supported throughout their learning journey, particularly those who need it most.
- Globally Respected: Research, teaching, innovation and knowledge exchange undertaken by Scotland, must make a difference; enhance and contribute to global wellbeing, addressing 21st Century challenges such as the climate emergency and attracting inward investment and talent to study, live and work in Scotland.
- Agile and Responsive: Everybody in the system collaborates to deliver in the best interests of Scotland’s wellbeing economy.
The Initial Priorities document, published alongside Purpose and Principles, set out the first steps toward post-school education reform. These include:
- the Scottish Government taking on responsibility for skills planning and the building of a regional approach
- exploration of the development of a new single funding body
- improving careers advice and education
- reviewing student support for part-time learners, ensuring it takes account of all learning pathways including apprenticeships.
Legislative groundwork
One year after the publication of the Skills Review and the Purpose and Principles, the Scottish Government launched the Post-school education and skills reform legislation consultation. This focuses on simplifying the funding landscape and laying the groundwork for future plans.
It sets out the options for bringing funding for learner support into one place and funding for apprenticeships, colleges and universities into one place. It considers potential changes to the functions of SFC, SAAS and SDS. Two options for change are put forward:
- Consolidate all provision funding within SFC and all student support funding within SAAS.
- Consolidate all provision funding and all student support funding within SFC.
Currently, SFC and SDS are each responsible for delivering funding for different parts of the apprenticeship system and SFC and SAAS both deliver different elements of student support.
Option 1 brings SDS’s current responsibilities for apprenticeship funding to SFC and gives SFC’s current responsibilities for administering further education student support to SAAS.
Option 2 gives SFC responsibility for funding for all provision and student support. This would be in line with the Withers review recommendation for the creation of a single funding body.
In a letter to the Education, Children and Young People (ECYP) Committee in June, the Minister for Higher and Further Education; and Minister for Veterans, Graeme Dey MSP, said that business cases for options 1 and 2 will be progressed. The Minister acknowledged that proposed changes introduce “uncertainty for the staff” at SDS, SFC and SAAS and “detailed work” with trade unions and others would be carried out, in line with Fair Work principles.
The Minister’s letter updated on other areas of progress on reform, including:
- cross-government work on national skills planning processes has begun and guidelines on regional skills planning are due by September
- work to further develop the apprenticeship models is underway
- a consultation on proposals for the dissolution of the Lanarkshire and Glasgow colleges regional strategic boards is underway.
The consultations on legislative change and college regional boards both close on 20 September 2024.
The wider context
Proposed reform comes at a time when the colleges and universities are under increasing financial pressure. While capital budgets for both increased slightly in 2024-25, resource budgets were cut. The college resource budget fell by £32.7 million (-4.8%) to £643 million and the university resource budget fell by £28.5 million (-3.6%) to £760.7 million.
Universities Scotland has said this settlement means “some inescapably hard choices for universities”, while Colleges Scotland said colleges faced “major changes” and “difficult choices”. NUS Scotland said “underfunding of universities and colleges is an increasingly acute issue” and cash terms cuts contained in the Budget will be “disastrous”.
During a pre-budget scrutiny session on college and university funding in June 2024, Colleges Scotland Chief Executive, Shona Struthers, told the ECYP Committee many colleges are forecasting deficits and she had “never quite seen the college sector as it is now”. Shona Struthers told the Committee:
“When I look at the college sector and its importance in delivering Scottish Government priorities, it slightly beggars belief that it is not being invested in.”
Universities Scotland Convener, Professor Iain Gillespie, said that, for universities, the 20% decline in international student numbers is an urgent issue, and the need to subsidise Scottish students through the university funding model “has become more acute” as costs rise and budgets decline.
Reforms to skills planning come at what is also a time of acute challenges for the wider economy. A combination of anticipated declines in the working age population over the medium term, and the challenge of change as the Scottish economy transitions to newer, greener industries has contributed to skills shortages. In its recent report into the Just Transition for the North East and Moray, the Economy and Fair Work Committee noted evidence from industry bodies and employers on the challenges they face:
“Scottish Renewables reported labour shortages across industry and difficulties in accessing skills with shortages in “welders and those skilled in construction practices”. The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) pointed to demand for construction managers and supervisors; and generally, construction professional/technical staff and skilled trade groups.”
Witnesses also noted that there needed to be clarity around what future roles and skills will be required, and when, which points to the importance of effective skills planning to ensure young people are being directed to the right training to be able to take advantage of the opportunities of the future, and for the existing workforce to have the opportunity to retrain at the right time.
The road ahead
Carrying out reform in this context will pose challenges. James Withers told the ECYP Committee in November 2023 that he worried that the college sector was a “burning platform in relation to finance and sustainability” and that this may lead to “chaotic reorganisation of the sector, based on the law of natural selection”.
Giving evidence to the ECYP Committee on 12 June 2024, out-going SFC Chief Executive, Karen Watt, suggested that dealing with duplication issues and fragmentation of funding streams within the sectors were ways in which the Scottish Government could provide immediate support via the reform agenda.
The Scottish Government plans to set out proposals for the future of the funding landscape in autumn 2024, with the resulting legislation passed before the end of the parliamentary session in March 2026. Some changes are anticipated to be made in time for academic year 2026-27.
It remains to be seen what shape the sectors involved in the delivery of post-school education will be in by 2026-27. It will likely depend on a combination of the outcome of upcoming budget settlements and additional support offered to the sectors via non-legislative reform and other means.
By Lynne Currie and Andrew Feeney-Seale, SPICe
18 July 2024
Blog Image: ICT Discovery: UN Graduate Study Programme visit” by ITU Pictures is licensed under CC BY 2.0.