To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting skills development to promote the future of the north-east fishing industry. (S6O-05256)

One of the ways in which we support skills development in Scotland’s important fishing industry is through our marine fund Scotland. In the north-east, examples include funding a training manager within Opportunity North East’s seafood transformation project, and providing funding to the North East Fishermen’s Training Association to invest in training equipment to allow fishers to undertake Maritime and Coastguard Agency courses. The fund has also provided more than £800,000 to Seafish to provide safety training to fishers across Scotland.

The recent update on our fisheries management strategy delivery plan set out our commitment to continue to work in partnership with our fishing industry and Seafish to identify and support the delivery of actions in support of safety and career development training.

Vocational qualifications are a vital route for young people to enter the fishing industry, thereby becoming the next generation of skippers, deckhands and engineers and taking on what is an important way of life in the north-east and other parts of Scotland. However, according to new figures that I have obtained from Skills Development Scotland, no new vocational qualifications have been awarded in sea fishing since 2019. There were no north-east starts at all last year, and fewer than five workboat diplomas were given out of a total of just under 90 maritime qualifications in the past five years. What is the Scottish National Party Government really doing to guarantee the future of a totemic industry for the north-east, and is the Minister content to allow the skills pathway to decline and to take away a way of life with it?

To give some context in answering the question, I think it important to acknowledge that there has been a record number of vocational qualifications this year. However, I do take the member’s points, and I appreciate why they are of interest not just to him as a representative of the north-east, but in relation to the common good of Scotland and this important industry.

If the member would furnish me and other ministers with the full details of the situation in his region, we would be happy to look into it. There are a lot of opportunities in his region—as well as some challenges, which he highlights in the chamber regularly—and we want to ensure that the fishing industry and other opportunities in the north-east are maximised for our young people and those who are retraining.

There are a number of supplementary questions. Before calling them, I remind members that the substantive question is on skills development in relation to the fishing industry in the north-east.

I welcome the commitments in this year's programme for government on improving careers support and advice. How is the Scottish Government engaging with stakeholders to support every young person on the path that works best for them, including in relation to access to local industries?

Minister, if you could tie your response to the substantive question, I would be grateful.

In order to make sure that individuals and our young people can access local industries, including our important fishing industry—

Members::

Ah!

—it is vital that we improve careers support for all ages. That is being taken forward as part of our reform agenda.

The career services collaborative, for example, which I recently engaged with during Scottish careers week, brings together partners from across the system to drive forward careers improvements. We are also engaging with employers through the developing the young workforce network, which has connections with employers throughout local areas, and through regional employer networks and industry bodies, some of which were mentioned earlier. Of course, we are also engaging with educators, colleges, universities, third sector organisations and young people to make sure that they are aware of the different opportunities.

The fishing industry in the north-east of Scotland will, of course, have to rely on the existence of apprenticeships and skills, but the Government is systematically failing in that respect. The Minister has now written to the Education, Children and Young People Committee to say that crucial decisions in relation to the Government’s Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill, which contains its only proposals on skills, have not yet been taken. The letter gives as one option Skills Development Scotland delivering “a managed service”, because the due diligence to make the change that the Government has proposed has not yet been done.

The Government’s woefully low ambition in simply rejigging quangos—which will fail many in the north-east fishing industry—is not even that now. Instead, the Government is legislating to kick the can down the road and diverting millions of pounds from opportunities in the process.

When will the minister take this decision? How much longer will staff, employers, colleges and learners in the north-east have to wait to find out what their future looks like? Is he just going to accept the inevitable—that this Government’s plans are unworkable and that he should go back to the drawing board?

We had significant discussion on the bill that the member mentioned at during its stage 2 consideration both yesterday and last week. I must say that I find the Scottish Labour Party’s approach to the whole issue quite perplexing. On the one hand, it states that it wants to increase opportunities for young people and to be a constructive part of that process. In her question, however, the member quoted out of context aspects of a letter that I sent in good faith to the committee to update it on the implementation process, should the bill be the will of Parliament and passed.

I am working hard with members across the chamber, including with the member herself, and she has put forward some constructive ideas, despite the unfair negativity in her question. I am looking forward to working on the bill ahead of stage 3. This is not about diverting resource from skills provision, but about how we readjust the skills system in Scotland to meet the needs of the next part of the 21st century, when we will have to be more agile and efficient and to provide opportunities.

We are providing a record number of modern apprenticeships, and we know that there is unmet demand that we want to meet. I look forward to some of those apprentices coming from the fishing industry.

I call Willie Rennie. Very briefly, please.

In the north-east of Fife, we have significant problems with recruiting crew for the local boats. The local schools used to provide courses for young people to access the industry, but they seem to have dried up. Will the Minister look again at the provision in every community across Scotland, including in the north-east of Fife?

I thank the member for raising those important points. His question builds on some of the discussion that we had at stage 2 of the Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill about niche provision that we must ensure is in place, if we are to meet the goal of retaining skills that have been important in important industries in certain areas, including in the north-east of Fife and the north-east of Scotland.

If Willie Rennie wants to engage with me and the Government more widely on those points, I will be happy to try to assist him constructively, including as part of collaborative engagement with local skills or training providers, such as colleges or other entities.

Question 7 has not been lodged.