The Route to Agile Funding

Education, research and innovation are the accelerants to ignite the transformation of Scotland’s economy and create sustainable and inclusive futures for people and places across the whole nation; the reform of tertiary education funding is central to establishing and sustaining this wellbeing economy. 

A funding system that enables tertiary education to deliver flexibility and responsiveness to learner and employer need is at the heart of the Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill (‘the TET Bill’) currently going through the Scottish Parliament. The Bill seeks to support learners, employers and the economy by closing the gap between the demand and supply of skills to meet rapidly changing economic, social and demographic circumstances. 

The impetus for the Bill arose from the recommendations of the independent review of the skills landscape led by James Withers, former chief executive of Scotland Food & Drink. He concluded that current ways of funding university, college and apprenticeship education fail to address skills gaps or to reflect the range of learning opportunities available after the age of sixteen. 

The current funding system is fragmented between funding bodies, costly in its bureaucracy, and difficult to navigate for individuals and employers. The proposed changes place responsibility for the provision of all post-16 funding with the Scottish Funding Council (SFC). This will enable a renewed SFC to establish a more coherent, responsive, and flexible ‘whole-system’ approach to benefit learners, employers and the nation as a whole; funding can be dialled up or down in response to changing demands and skills needs.

Since the publication of the Withers Report in 2023 skills needs of employers have become more acute and the risks to our society and economy posed by an increasing percentage of our population not in work, education or training more pronounced. Flexibility of funding to reflect life-long learning will better support future paths in and through employment that will no longer resemble the linear career paths of the past. A changing economy requires agility in both the workforce and the funding system to enable upskilling, reskilling and retraining, often via new forms of micro-credentials or certificated learning. 

The new legislation will create a statutory framework for apprenticeships in Scotland, with the aim of establishing parity of esteem between institution-based learning and work-based learning and with an increased focus on workplace learning delivered in partnership with employers who will also drive a new Apprenticeship Committee within SFC. I’ve overseen the development of Graduate Apprenticeship programmes and other SFC Board members have been instrumental in establishing and delivering Foundation, Modern and Graduate Apprenticeship programmes; we are all passionate about the outcomes and impacts for learners and the economy. 

Industry engagement between SFC and employers is already well-established through SFC’s funding of research and innovation which has been instrumental in forging relationships between academia and industry. The planned transfer of functions and staff expertise to SFC from Skills Development Scotland will enable even greater synergy to be developed between academia and industry. 

There are benefits too in being able to extend SFC’s pioneering and globally recognised approach to quality assurance which focuses on enhancement and continuous improvement; extending our experience and expertise to apprenticeships will benefit all learners in post-16 education.

The rationale for change is clear. As the Bill has progressed so too has insight and meaningful debate with helpful amendments recently agreed by the cross-party Education, Children and Young People Committee. We now need to embrace our shared determination to deliver for the people, places and economy of Scotland by creating a funding system for tertiary education that better serves learners and employers across the whole of Scotland.

This article is sponsored by the Scottish Funding Council.

www.sfc.ac.uk