Question reference: S5W-00443
- Asked by: Daniel Johnson, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 3 June 2016
-
Current status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 27 June 2016
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage more modern apprenticeship starts in construction and related sectors.
Answer
The Scottish Government, in partnership with our national skills body, Skills Development Scotland (SDS) undertakes range of activity to encourage more modern apprenticeships (MA) in construction and related sectors. This includes:
Prioritising key and enabling sectors, including opportunities in construction, within the annual MA target, which this year has increased to 26,000 starts;
The development of a skills investment plan (SIP) for construction published in March 2015. The construction SIP provides a blueprint for the public sector and industry to work collaboratively to address skills issues now and in the future, with a key focus on attracting future talent and building pathways into the sector.
Developing wider apprenticeship opportunities in the civil engineering area of construction though foundation apprenticeships in the senior phase of school and graduate level apprenticeships with Scottish Universities.
Working with construction industry training board (CITB) through the annual Scottish apprenticeship week campaign and the annual Scottish apprenticeship awards.
As a result there has been an increase in the number of construction related MA opportunities between 2010-11 and 2015-16, as set out in the following table:
|
MA Starts to Construction and Related Frameworks |
|
Year |
Starts |
|
2010-11 |
3,109 |
|
2011-12 |
3,795 |
|
2012-13 |
3,787 |
|
2013-14 |
4,435 |
|
2014-15 |
4,409 |
|
2015-16 |
4,894 |