The Scottish Government

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Building a Better Scotland

ENTERPRISE AND LIFELONG LEARNING

To create a highly skilled, learning, earning, connected Scotland

Economic success is a pre-requisite for building first class public services, social justice, and a Scotland full of opportunity. Scotland's future economic success depends on the people of Scotland, their knowledge, understanding, creativity and enterprise.

We have embarked on a medium-term strategy towards building Scottish science and skills. Since 1999, we have focused the work of the Enterprise Networks through A Smart, Successful Scotland; taken a range of measures to improve the innovation of our business; and shifted financial support more towards Scottish companies. Through this Spending Review, we set about building on these initiatives and consolidating our strategy. Our objectives for the next three years are set out below.

Virtually all of our expenditure goes towards our objectives on education and jobs, including resources to increase our support to science, innovation and investment. Our objectives here are also supported by the Structural Funds programmes ( see chapter on Finance and Public Services). Much of our spending is aimed at closing the opportunity gap in employment and training. As a result of this Spending Review, we will be:

• rolling out Educational Maintenance Allowances;
• extending our Modern Apprenticeship scheme;
• boosting further education spending, which will allow colleges to invest considerably in their facilities and continue to accommodate record numbers of students, including those from the most disadvantaged areas;
• building on initiatives to promote an enterprising culture among our young people; and
• encouraging the commercialisation of scientific research and innovation to raise productivity and economic growth.

OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS

* These are from A Smart, Successful Scotland. The aim is to improve Scotland's performance and move towards the top quartile of OECD countries.

What we will do

In addition to new funding from the Spending Review, the budget also incorporates changes in the way in which existing budgets will be used. Over the three year period, Scottish Enterprise will achieve savings of approximately 45 million a year from its Business Transformation project - essentially a Best Value approach to using its budget. The expenditure freed up from this will be redirected within that programme to learning and skills, commercialisation of science and innovation and digital connections. Highlands and Islands Enterprise is engaged in a similar business improvement process. We are therefore achieving greater outcomes from the same level of spending. Over the Spending Review period we will:

• invest an additional 0/8/26 million in Educational Maintenance Allowances (EMAs), extending the scheme to cover all of Scotland. Young people from less well-off families will receive a payment each week to encourage them to remain at school and in further education;
• provide a further 5/10/10 million for Modern Apprenticeships (MAs). We will increase the number to over 25,000. MAs have proved successful in combining education with employment: every trainee is in a job.
• provide extra funding of 3/40/78 million to further education, enabling colleges to extend their capacity to deliver the services to the 500,000 people of all ages who use them each year and to improve their facilities;
• provide additional investment in innovation and science. Higher Education will receive a boost of 4/48/82 million, of which 25 million in 2004-05 is to invest in strengthening science and research capacity, rising to 35 million in 2005-06. Alongside this, Scottish Enterprise will take forward its proposals for Intermediary Technology Institutes in order to develop the link between university research and creating high quality sustainable jobs; and
• make available additional funding of 0/3/3.5 million for a new scheme of Individual Learning Accounts.

We have also looked at the spending on Regional Selective Assistance, taking into account expected trends in inward investment projects. Funding will be transferred to other parts of the programme to give a big boost to venture capital for small and growing companies as well as investment in innovation.

Spending Plans

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