lit Ministear airson Sgileanagus lonnsachadh Fad-bheatha Minister for Skills and Lifelong Learning

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1 Ministear airson Sgileanagus lonnsachadh Fad-bheatha Minister for Skills and Lifelong Learning Angela Constance MSP FIT: E: ~ The Scottish Government Riaghaltas na h-alba John McClelland Chair Skills Development Scotland Alhambra House 45 Waterloo Street Glasgow G26HS! lit March, Following the Scottish Parliament's approval of the draft Budget Bill on 10 February, I am writing to confirm the allocation to Skills Development Scotland (SDS) for It is as follows: Skills Develo ment Scotland Bud et m This letter sets out my guidance to Skills Development Scotland (SDS) on the policies and priorities I expect to be taken into account as it develops its approach and activities over You will recognise in this letter the continuity in this Government's priorities for SDS from , given our continued emphasis on economic recovery, jobs and growth. 2. SDS's Corporate Plan clearly outlines three strategic goals: to enable people to fulfil their potential; to make skills work for employers; to be a catalyst for positive change. Over , we expect SDS to achieve these three goals by putting the customer at the centre of its services, by close engagement with employers to ensure that their skills needs are met, and by being a leader in delivering and coordinating coherent and accessible skills support in Scotland. 1 This allocation is as set out in SDS's Grant-in-Aid letter for Tho'VESTOR IS PEOPLE

2 3. Coming into even sharper focus in will be the budget reductions which are being felt across the public sector. Building on your track record of delivering efficiencies, I expect SOS to maintain front-line service delivery with its reduced budget allocation and to report to Government, in line with your standard arrangements, on how both your savings and your delivery targets have been achieved. 4. Our priorities as set out in the budget for are to deliver and support 46,500 training places by: creating 25,000 modern apprenticeship places, focused on unemployed young people aged that will help them to access the labour market; providing 7,000 flexible training opportunities for business; expanding the Employer Recruitment offer to SMEs for up to 5000 places to incentivise recruitment of people aged 18 and over; delivering 2.5m for Small Business Employment Support. This programme should assist companies with fewer than 50 employees to increase their recruitment by providing an extra 1000 subsidy to support the particular challenges and costs they face in recruiting additional staff; and working with Community Planning Partnerships, to deliver 14,500 pre-employment opportunities to help people move into the labour market. Economic Recovery 5. SOS has a key contribution to make to the Scottish Government's Economic Recovery Plan. This focuses on supporting growth and responding effectively to unemployment. Specifically I expect SOS to: continue to deliver the 'Adopt an Apprentice' and 'Safeguard an Apprentice' Initiatives; develop the training and skills required for successful transition to a low carbon economy, including the continued delivery of the Low Carbon Skills Fund; continue to deliver Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE). PACE is central to providing timely and flexible support to people and businesses facing redundancy. SOS is the Government's key partner in delivering PACE and in ensuring the Partnership has the necessary capacity and flexibility to provide a fast and effective response to redundancies across the private, public and third sectors; and work with SAAS to continue to offer learning opportunities through the ILA 200 scheme, focusing on economic growth and employment. We also want to continue to better integrate our employment and skills system. SOS's provision of high quality information, advice and guidance and its suite of training interventions are crucial components of this offer. During the coming year, we look to SOS to build on its work to develop and roll out the Integrated Employment Service piloted with Jobcentre Plus. Local employability partnerships and FE colleges must be central partners in this effort to ensure a more coherent offer of support across Scotland, particularly to young people and the ~ ~ IXVESTOR Th' PEOPLE 1ar:IUW- ISOI4~atv. ~

3 Youth Transitions 6. As you know, the Scottish Government's commitment to developing opportunities for young people is at the heart of its agenda. In this context, SOS' priorities to support young people in the coming year will be to: improve the transition of young people into sustainable employment, through delivery of 16+ Learning Choices and roll-out of Activity Agreements, and by making best use of Targeted Pathways and the Employer Recruitment Initiative (ERI) for year olds. More specifically, I expect SOS to build on its pivotal role in the delivery of 16+ Learning Choices, at both operational and strategic levels, acting as the 16+ Learning Choices Data Hub and working with partners to ensure early identification and continued tracking and monitoring of individual young people and their learning choices; use this information, working with local partners, to provide an agreed series of analysis to help shape the scope and scale of learning opportunities and support, based on individual need; continue to conduct the School Leaver Destination Return (and follow-up survey) providing detailed national and local analysis of the results; account manage national employers (including Scottish Government and its public bodies) wishing to offer young people a job, an apprenticeship and work experience, that will build on Step Forward Scotland; implement the Career lag (CIAG) Strategy, as Government's key partner, based on a strong working relationship with schools, colleges and other providers of learning and support; develop online CIAG services, building on the introduction of the e-prospectus of post- 16 learning opportunities through My World of Work. This should enable SOS to protect frontline provision, while targeting support more effectively for those who are most in need; playa central role in any roll out of Activity Agreements, following evaluation of the pilots. A key element in our strategy for engaging harder to reach young people, the pilots have shown SOS's key workers are a critical resource for supporting the most vulnerable young people; and training providers who deliver the Life Skills strand of Get Ready for Work will also have an important role to play. SOS will therefore need to ensure these resources make a full contribution to locally-identified priorities; work closely with JobCentre Plus to ensure year olds continue to have access to the opportunities and support they need to progress into and sustain employment; maintain a sharp focus on the wider More Choices, More Chances agenda, alongside this emphasis on post- 16 transitions. SOS will therefore work collaboratively with local partnerships to support early identification of, and support for, particularly vulnerable young people, including those who are looked after or leaving care and who need additional support for their learning. 8. SOS will also continue to lead on adult literacy and numeracy awareness raising to the public and to employers and reducing stigma through the Big Plus campaigns. 8 ~ IS()I~tVO. ~.~~.... =- - ~

4 9. We will provide an associated 'Policy Drivers' paper to provide more detail on the context for the priorities set out in this letter. Organisational effectiveness 10. I also invite you to ensure SDS's statistics and evaluation evidence are up-to date, relevant and robust to allow accurate reporting against the Scottish Government's Performance Framework; and to ensure SDS's statistics are subject to the same quality control and publication protocols that guide the production of Scottish Government statistics. This may be achieved through greater collaboration with my officials in an effort to increase efficiency, reduce burden and raise standards. I am also asking SDS to collaborate with the Scottish Government and other partners in working to develop a shared body of evidence and systems of shared intelligence, for example through collaboration over your research plans, to avoid duplication and pooling of resources and joint working where appropriate. More generally, and in particular given the current substantial - and reasonable - scrutiny of the probity of public bodies, SDS needs to be able to provide timely and high quality information to Government on its delivery, performance, and financial and human resources. As part of this continued effort, SDS should respond to the findings of its recent Systematic Scrutiny Check. Your own plans to review and improve corporate governance will be part of this effort. Finally, and as you will be aware, the Scottish Parliament election takes place on May 5. SDS, like all public bodies, should stand ready to adapt its plans in light of priorities which emerge after the election. I am copying this letter to Damien Yeates, Chief Executive of SDS, and to those listed below (including a further copy for you in your capacity as Chair of the Scottish Funding Council). A copy will also be placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre. 1/ a C /) /dvy) / ty /./ /. "cj _.{~ / ',.. ~;.~ ~~ /7j7 "-~ // ""/ (/ r ~ //' /' /' Angela Constance Minister for Skills and Lifelong Learning.~ ISOI400latY. ~ I~'VESTOR IN PEOPLE

5 COPY LIST COSLA: Rory Mair, Chief Executive SE: Lena Wilson, Chief Executive; Crawford Gillies, Chair HIE: Alex Paterson, Chief Executive; William Roe, Chair SFC: Mark Batho Chief Executive; John McClelland CBE Chair SFC/SDS Skills Committee: Dr Janet Lowe CBE Chair Universities Scotland: Alistair Sim, Director Scotland's Colleges: John Henderson, Chief Executive STUC: Grahame Smith, Secretary General SCVO: Martin Sime, Chief Executive Learning and Teaching Scotland: Bernard McLeary Chief Executive SQA: Dr Janet Brown, Chief Executive SCQF: Aileen Ponton, Chief Executive Scottish Training Federation: Colin Dalrymple, Chief Executive; Stuart Leitch, Chair Alliance of Sector Skills Councils: Jacqui Hepburn, Director Federation of Small Businesses: Andy Willox OBE, Scottish Policy Convener CBI - Scotland: lain McMillan CBE ADES: Leslie Manson President; John Stodter General Secretary r-~, ~ d "'~.., I:SVESTOR 1:-<'PEOPLE

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