The Scottish Government

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ENTERPRISE AND LIFELONG LEARNING

To increase prosperity for all the people of Scotland by supporting business, encouraging enterprise, building on the excellence of our universities and colleges, and improving skills and employability.

OBJECTIVES & TARGETS

Spending plans 2002-08

Table 6.01 Categories of spending (Level 2)

Table 6.02 Categories of spending (Level 2 real terms)at 2005-06 prices

What the budget does

The work of the Enterprise and Lifelong Learning ( ELL) portfolio is focused on helping to grow Scotland's economy. The largest part of the expenditure is on growing the long term capacity of our population through further and higher education and training. We provide significant amounts of direct assistance to those who want to start or grow a business. We develop policy and work with business to remove the barriers that exist to its growth. ELL's focus is not primarily spending resources, but acting to create a more business-friendly environment to enable business and the economy to grow.

Our objectives are also supported by the European Structural Funds programmes.

In everything that we do we are committed to ensuring that we work to promote equality and close the opportunity gap, and to ensure that our activities are sustainable.

Over the current Spending Review period (to 2008) we will focus our resources on making a significant investment in further and higher education, particularly in meeting the sector's capital requirements. We will maintain resources allocated to the Enterprise Networks. The other important work we do will be maintained with smaller budgets largely held flat, supporting increases in lifelong learning.

Statement of priorities

In 2006-07 we will focus our resources on:

• supporting growth and improving productivity throughout the economy;

• supporting an aspiring, ambitious and enterprising business and learning culture;

• making Scotland an attractive place in which to live, learn, work and do business;

• connecting Scotland at home and abroad;

• closing the gap; and

• delivering efficient and effective public services.

Growing the Economy

Our commitment to Growing the Economy will continue through the following:

• The Executive recognises that sustained productivity increases are an essential determinant of long term sustainable economic growth. ELL supports a number of initiatives that influence key drivers of productivity, including skills, investment, innovation and enterprise;

• Increasing the skills and education of the workforce can have a significant impact on the economy's productivity and growth. Continued investment in higher education, the provision and support of training initiatives ensures that individuals have the opportunity to gain appropriate skills making sure that the workforce is equipped with the necessary skills to compete. This necessitates action in several areas, reflecting the needs of different sections of the labour force. Accordingly, ELL has several targets in this area, and funds a number of policies and initiatives designed to increase the number of people in employment undertaking training; to reduce the proportion of 16-19 year olds not in education, employment or training; to improve the number of students enrolled in higher education completing the programme of study; and to close the gap in unemployment rates across Scotland. These initiatives include support for Modern Apprenticeships; paying the tuition fees for eligible Scottish domiciled students at Scottish institutions; continued support for the graduate endowment to help fund future student support; the reintroduction of Individual Learning Accounts; and the piloting of Business Learning Accounts. The Executive also administers Education Maintenance Allowances, which receives funding from the Treasury through the Annually Managed Expenditure budget;

• Encouraging entrepreneurship and new firm formation is an important aspect of the ELL portfolio, as higher levels of both increase productivity and the competitiveness of the economy. Accordingly, one of the department's key targets is to increase entrepreneurial activity in Scotland. ELL and the Enterprise Networks currently support a number of initiatives to encourage entrepreneurial activity, including the new Business Start-up Grant for young people and the £45m Scottish Co-investment Fund and Business Growth Fund;

• ELL also provides support for innovation and for the science base, both of which have an important role to play on the economy's rate of growth by introducing new products, processes and ideas into the market. The portfolio has targeted increased expenditure on R&D by business in Scotland. With the Enterprise Networks, ELL has provided funding for a number of policies in place in this area, including £23.5m over 3 years for SMART and SPUR, £9m over 3 years for SEEKIT (Scottish Executive Expertise, Knowledge and Innovation Transfer) and SCORE ( SME Collaborative Research) and £40m over 6 years since 1999 for Proof of Concept. The recent SPAF (Scottish Proposal Assistance Fund) and PACER (Proposal Assistance for Co-ordination of European Research) initiatives were introduced to assist Scottish companies and the science base respectively to access European Framework Programme 6 funding for R&D. To date Scottish SMEs and universities have accessed over â'¬8m through these two programmes. Scottish Enterprise is investing £450m over the next 10 years for the three Intermediary Technology Institutes ( ITIs);

• The Executive's broadband strategy recognises that in remote rural areas the market is unlikely to meet the anticipated demand for high capacity bandwidth under current procurement practices. Therefore, the Executive has committed a total of £90m (commencing April 2006 for a period of up to 7 years), to fund the Pathfinder project which aims, through aggregated public sector procurement, to encourage suppliers to invest in necessary infrastructure to provide scalable bandwidth to serve the needs of schools and local government in Highlands & Islands and South of Scotland; and

• The Executive is committed to sustainable development, and is currently developing a Green Jobs strategy to help Scotland benefit from the opportunities emerging in environmental industries. ELL is also committed to increasing the percentage of Scottish energy generated from renewable sources, and improving public and private sector energy efficiency. Accordingly, the Executive introduced the Scottish Community and Household Renewables Initiative in 2002-03 worth over £10m over 5 years; is assisting in the development of the marine energy sector principally through the establishment of the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney (£2m); and is committed to producing an Energy Efficiency Strategy for Scotland, which may result in new measures and initiatives being developed.

Closing the Opportunity Gap/Promoting Equality

Closing the Opportunity Gap

Our commitment to Closing the Opportunity Gap will be achieved by:

• ensuring that the mainstream work of the ELL portfolio contributes to closing the opportunity gap both by promoting enterprise (through the Enterprise Networks) which brings employment opportunities and the acquisitions of skills through lifelong learning, which increases employability;

• ensuring that specific targeted action includes tackling financial barriers to learning through paying university fees, Individual Learning Accounts and Education Maintenance Allowances;

• ensuring delivery of a high quality provision by funding Further and Higher Education, Modern Apprenticeships and Business Learning Accounts;

• targeting information, advice and guidance deficits by funding learndirect Scotland, Careers Scotland and the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework;

• funding targeted support for disadvantaged or vulnerable groups, including the Not in Education, Employment or Training ( NEET) client group, through implementation of the Beattie Report and the Adult Literacy and Numeracy Strategy; and

• targeting support to disadvantaged areas such as Regional Selective Assistance ( RSA), Local Regeneration Projects and European Structural Funds.

Promoting Equality

Our commitment to Equality will be enhanced by:

• making available £86m over 5 years (from 2003-2008) to ensure all young people are better prepared for work by encouraging local authorities to ensure all pupils from P1 to S6 have enterprise experiences;

• continuing our policy to support Modern Apprenticeships having already achieved the target of having 30,000 in employment and training by 2006, targeting under-represented groups;

• making available around £2.25m to continue providing the disabled students' allowance for the provision of specialist equipment, a non-medical personal helper or additional assistance to students, if required as a result of their disability, in order for them to attend or undertake a full or part-time higher education course;

• making available a total of £9.3m within the ESF Objective 3 programme in Scotland to support equal opportunities by targeting joblessness among specific groups (including people with disabilities, minority ethnic communities and lone parents) (£6.3m), raising awareness of gender issues throughout the economy (£0.9m), and funding innovative projects to increase the accessibility of the labour market to women (£2.1m);

• making available £2m to the Scottish Further Education Funding Council, within its core budget allocation, to support the work of further education colleges in teaching English language courses, including to asylum seekers and refugees; and

• providing assistance to the National Unit for Women's Enterprise ( NUWE) within the Enterprise Networks, to launch a strategy on women's enterprise to inform Enterprise Network activity in targeting women entrepreneurs. The strategy will build on the key findings and recommendations of comprehensive research work and should be available in the autumn. The strategy will identify the issues and constraints faced by women and provide a clear focus for Enterprise Networks in encouraging more women to start-up in business.

Sustainable Development

Our commitment to nurturing Sustainable Development will continue through the following:

• The Forum for Renewable Energy Development in Scotland, a high level Forum to promote renewable energy in Scotland, which brings together representatives from the renewables industry, the established energy industry, academia and other stakeholders. The group focuses on how to support the emerging renewable energy technologies;

• Working to encourage participation in renewable energy projects by communities and local authorities. So far, we have helped around 280 such projects in the renewables industry;

• The Executive's commitment to generate 40% of Scottish electricity from renewables by 2020 has been the driver behind successful developments such as the manufacturing facilities at Campbeltown and Lewis (c. 200 jobs) and the European Marine Energy Test Centre in Orkney;

• Going for green growth: a green jobs strategy for Scotland was published in June 2005 and sets out a robust framework within which we can deliver strong growth and associated employment while reducing our impact on the environment around us;

• New linkages between RSA and sustainable development were introduced last year, building on the direct support that RSA offers to eligible green projects and these linkages will be extended. All applicants for grants of £1m and over will be required to engage constructively with the Department or its agents on resource efficiency issues. In addition we also plan to offer all companies applying for an RSA grant a free energy audit; and

• The Proof of Concept Fund has been designed to address a gap in the commercialisation market between scientific discovery and prototype proof of concept stage. Although not exclusively aimed at 'green' industries it is available to projects related to sustainable development. Since 1999 the Proof of Concept fund has supported 146 projects and created 290 jobs.

STUDENT AWARDS AGENCY FOR SCOTLAND ( SAAS)

Spending Plans 2002-08

Table 6.03 More detailed categories of spending (Level 3)

Note:
1. £15m has been transferred into SAAS from the Miscellaneous line of the Other Enterprise and Lifelong Learning budget for 2006-07 and 2007-08. As the budget for 2005-06 has already been approved by Parliament, the 2005-06 transfer will take place at the Autumn budget revision.

What the budget does

This budget:

• provides financial support and advice to Scottish domiciled students undertaking courses of higher education in the UK and abroad;

• administers schemes covering undergraduate and postgraduate students and, on behalf of the NHS Management Executive, run a bursary scheme for nursing and midwifery students; and

• administers the Graduate Endowment Scheme.

Levels of spending are demand-led, but capped by the overall control maintained on the numbers of students for which the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council ( SHEFC) funds institutions.

SAAS also:

• distributes Hardship Funds and the Childcare Fund to higher education institutions ( HEIs) and monitors payments; and

• processes applications for student loans and pays the Scottish share of spending by the Student Loans Company Limited (including the Company's running costs).

SCOTTISH HIGHER EDUCATION FUNDING COUNCIL

Spending Plans 2002-08

Table 6.04 More detailed categories of spending (Level 3)

What the budget does

The Scottish Higher Education Funding Council and the Scottish Further Education Funding Council will amalgamate on 1 October 2005 and become The Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council. These budgets will continue to be shown separately until this time.

The Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council will fund Scotland's colleges and HEIs. This budget line supports the teaching, research and wider knowledge transfer activities of 20 higher education institutions ( HEIs) in Scotland, including the activities in Scotland of the Open University. In 2006-07, SHEFC will fund 133,350 full time equivalent ( FTE) places.

In 2006-07 and 2007-08, public investment in SHEFC will:

• maintain the expanded number of funded places available;

• support continued provision of high quality, effective and relevant teaching and learning which is flexible and responsive to current demand and the future needs of Scotland;

• support initiatives to widen access to traditionally under-represented groups, foster equal opportunities and improve retention;

• develop the links between HEIs and FE colleges so that it is easier for students to move between different types of institution; and

• support the embedding of high quality management and leadership throughout HEIs.

The Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council will fund Scotland's colleges and HEIs. This budget line will:

• provide robust funding for research so that Scotland remains competitive with the rest of the UK and internationally, including on charity funded research; support the development of new or emerging areas of research activity; encourage collaboration between institutions, in particular on research pooling, with the aim of boosting quality in certain subject areas, and support increased knowledge transfer from higher education into the wider economy and society;

• support the sector on international educational and student exchanges and overseas recruitment. This work will support the delivery of the Executive's International Strategy;

• provide continued investment in information and communications technology ( ICT); and

• begin a sustained programme of significant new investment in HEI's teaching estate, to provide a modern, efficient and flexible infrastructure appropriate for supporting 21 ^st Century teaching. Following a £28m allocation to the sector in 2005-06 through the HE Learning & Teaching Infrastructure Fund, a further £45m will be allocated in 2006-07 with an additional £75m to follow in 2007-08.

SCOTTISH FURTHER EDUCATION FUNDING COUNCIL

Spending Plans 2002-08

Table 6.05 More detailed categories of spending (Level 3)

What the budget does

The Scottish Higher Education Funding Council and the Scottish Further Education Funding Council will amalgamate on 1 October 2005 and become the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council. These budgets will continue to be shown separately until this time.

The Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council will fund Scotland's colleges and HEIs. This budget line supports Scotland's 43 further education ( FE) colleges in providing a wide range of further and higher education. Around 37% of higher education qualifications are awarded to students in FE colleges who account for approximately 20% of all learners in higher education.

• In 2006-07 and 2007-08, public investment in FE colleges will fund:

• continued provision of high quality, effective and relevant further and higher education to record numbers of students - participation in FE now stands at around one enrolment for every ten Scots;

• improvements to the sector's flexibility and responsiveness so that the range of learning opportunities on offer best matches current demand and the future skills needs of Scotland;

• increased and enhanced partnership activity between schools and colleges;

• a strategic approach to the development of the sector's estate and an increasing programme of modernisation of the colleges' fabric and facilities;

• increasing participation and retention of traditionally under-represented groups and students with special needs;

• continued quality improvement of provision and of college governance and management;

• support to ensure that the situation of colleges in poor financial health is turned around;

• student support for living, study, childcare etc, targeted at those in greatest need, to make further education more accessible; and

• begin a sustained programme of significant new investment in FE colleges teaching estate, to enhance the colleges' modernisation programme to provide a modern, efficient and flexible infrastructure appropriate for supporting 21 ^st century teaching.

SCOTTISH ENTERPRISE ¹

Spending Plans 2002-08

Table 6.06 More detailed categories of spending (Level 3)

Notes:
1. The budgets for 2006-07 and 2007-08 are provisional until the Scottish Executive has agreed Scottish Enterprise's Operating Plan.
2. From 2003-04, the full estimated operating costs for Careers Scotland (including operational and support staff costs, project costs, ICT, cost of premises, etc) are included in Skills and Learning. These are £55.5m (2003-04), £51.3m (2004-05), £56.4m (2005-06), £55.9m (2006-07) and £54m (2007-08).

What the budget does

A Smart, Successful Scotland which provides the Executive's strategic direction to the Enterprise Networks (Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise), ( http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/enterprise/sss-00.asp) was 'refreshed' in November 2004. The purpose of the refresh was to reflect progress made since SSS was first published in 2001; to ensure challenges facing the economy which it addresses remain relevant; to reflect the Executive's commitment to sustainable development; and to make clearer the linkages between SSS and other cross-cutting policy areas (e.g. closing the opportunity gap).

A measurement framework has been established for A Smart Successful Scotland that sets medium to long-term outcome measures for the Scottish economy. Scottish Enterprise (and Highlands and Islands Enterprise) agree Corporate Plans with the Executive which set out the actions they will undertake to contribute to the desired outcomes.

The current Scottish Enterprise Operating Plan spans the three year period 2005-08, with detailed emphasis on 2005-06. Activity and budgets are set out against the SSS themes of Growing Businesses, Global Connections and Skills and Learning. Over the period of the Plan, Scottish Enterprise will spend between £60-£70m annually on Growing Businesses including on business start ups (including survival and growth), developing high potential companies and the Co-investment Fund, which provides risk capital for early stage ambitious Scottish businesses. Under Skills and Learning, annual investments for Modern Apprenticeships for young people will be £38m, with £14m for Skillseekers and £19m for Get Ready for Work. The Global Connections theme includes the Competitive Place Strategic Investment Plan and, within this, Scottish Enterprise's contribution to the River Clyde regeneration projects (including Pacific Quay, Clydebank rebuilt and Glasgow Harbour), which will receive annual funding of between £85 to £95m.

HIGHLANDS & ISLANDS ENTERPRISE ¹

Spending Plans 2002-08

Table 6.07 More detailed categories of spending (Level 3)

Notes:
1. The budgets for 2006-07 and 2007-08 are provisional until the Scottish Executive has agreed Highlands and Islands Enterprise's Operating Plan.
2. From 2003-04, the full estimated operating costs for Careers Scotland (including operational and support staff costs, ICT, cost of premises, etc) are included in Skills and Learning. These are £3.9m (2003-04), £4.8m (2004-05), £5.6m (2005-06), £5.7m (2006-07) and £5.8m (2007-08).

What the budget does

Highlands and Islands Enterprise ( HIE) will continue to pursue the strategic direction set out in the refresh of A Smart, Successful Scotland. In addition to the themes of Growing Businesses, Global Connections and Skills and Learning, HIE has an additional remit to Strengthen Communities. HIE have applied these themes to the specific conditions of the Highlands and Islands, taking into account the distinct challenges facing the region, in A Smart, Successful Highlands and Islands. This document considers HIE's wider social remit and seeks to link the organisation's day-to-day operations to the strategic goals of SSS.

Over the period of their current Operating Plan, 2005-08, HIE will spend £14.5m (£6.6m in 2006-07) on the new Centre for Health Science at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness. A £3m contribution will be made towards providing Broadband services to the most remote and rural communities. The HIE Community Energy Company will receive £4.3m over 3 years to provide support for community-developed and owned renewable energy projects. Business starts and encouraging business growth will be funded at £12.5m annually. Modern Apprenticeships, Skillseekers and Get Ready for Work will collectively have an annual budget averaging £9m.

REGIONAL SELECTIVE ASSISTANCE

Spending Plans 2002-08

Table 6.08 More detailed categories of spending (Level 3)

What the budget does

The Regional Selective Assistance ( RSA) scheme contributes directly to the Executive's aim of raising the long-term sustainable growth rate of the Scottish economy through encouraging investment projects which support employment in the assisted areas. In 2005-06, it is planned that accepted RSA offers will lead to the creation and safeguarding of 6,000 jobs in the needier parts of Scotland helping to close the opportunity gap in employment in these areas.

EUROPEAN STRUCTURAL FUNDS

Spending Plans 2002-08

European Social Fund

Table 6.09 More detailed categories of spending (Level 3)

Note:
1. The reduction in the 2007-08 budgets is a result of bringing forward some of the budget to that of earlier years in order to meet demand.

European Regional Development Fund

Table 6.10 More detailed categories of spending (Level 3)

Note:
1. The reduction in the 2007-08 budgets is a result of bringing forward some of the budget to that of earlier years in order to meet demand.

What the budget does

European Structural Funds support job creation and training across a wide range of sectors, especially in declining geographical areas.

We have devolved responsibility for implementing European Structural Funds programmes in Scotland. This includes spending on the European Social Fund, the European Regional Development Fund and the non-scheme elements of the European Agricultural Guarantee and Guidance Fund.

Grants are issued to recipients from both the public and voluntary sectors for projects that have been approved by Scottish Ministers, following consideration by the partnership-based appraisal structures, under the supervision of the Programme Monitoring Committees, to make sure that they meet the criteria of the programmes.

OTHER ENTERPRISE AND LIFELONG LEARNING

Spending Plans 2002-08

Table 6.11 More detailed categories of spending (Level 3)

Note:
1. £15m has been transferred into SAAS from the Miscellaneous line of the Other Enterprise and Lifelong Learning budget for 2006-07 and 2007-08. As the budget for 2005-06 has already been approved by Parliament, the 2005-06 transfer will take place at the Autumn budget revision. The sum transferred in 2004-05 was £10m.

What the budget does

The proposed expenditure for 2006-07 will deliver:

• Education Maintenance Allowances ( EMAs) contribute to closing the opportunity gap by encouraging more young people aged 16-19 from low income households to remain in full-time education, at school or FE college. From 2004-05, the provision is supporting the staged introduction of the programme across Scotland. ( www.emascotland.com);

• learndirect Scotland (Scottish University for Industry) funding is for the promotion of lifelong learning, provision of information and advice on learning opportunities via a helpline and websites for learners, businesses and partner organisations, branding a network of learning centres, and fostering the use of new technologies to assist in developing the learning market ( http://www.learndirectscotland.com/home/) ( http://www.scottishufi.co.uk);

• The Scottish Climate Change Programme is designed to deliver our commitment to reduce carbon emissions. It covers many policy areas, but key elements are improving Energy Efficiency and the greater use of Renewable Energy. These aims are delivered by the following three programmes, which also have an economic benefit by stimulating new investment in carbon reduction:

• The Scottish Energy Efficiency Office ( www.energy-efficiency.org) promotes energy efficiency across the private and public sectors, working with other organisations such as the power companies and the enterprise networks;

• Over 2004-05 and 2005-06, the Public Sector Energy Efficiency Fund will provide £20m of new funding dedicated to energy efficiency measures in the public sector. It will be made available to local authorities, Scottish Water and Health Boards to fund a range of technologies expected to produce carbon savings; and

• Promotion of renewable energy, through the Renewables Obligation Scotland and by funding renewable energy projects in Scotland. Renewable energy sources currently account for around 12% of Scottish electricity generation. The Scottish Executive targets are for 18% of Scotland's electricity to be generated from renewables sources by 2010, rising to 40% by 2020.

• The Green Jobs, Marine Energy budget will be used mainly to support the implementation of the emerging conclusions of the Forum for Renewable Energy Development in Scotland, primarily in the areas of marine, biomass and hydrogen technologies. It is anticipated that these actions will lead to the creation of new employment, particularly in the remoter areas;

• The Scottish Renewables Obligation ( SRO), although now superseded by the Renewables Obligation Scotland, will remain in place until 2018. It involves raising a levy on electricity consumers to offset the additional costs to the two main Scottish electricity suppliers of purchasing renewable electricity produced by the SRO renewable energy projects generating in Scotland. Currently, 46 such projects are in operation, and we expect that more will be developed during the next 3 - 5 years;

• Innovation Support is largely delivered via the SMART/ SPUR grant scheme, which helps small and medium-sized businesses ( SMEs) to improve their competitiveness by supporting early stage research and development of innovative products/processes. The remainder of the budget assists with a variety of other innovation initiatives with a national dimension;

• A range of innovation-related New Initiatives: the National Intellectual Assets Centre; the SCORE ( SME Collaborative Research) grants to support R&D projects, jointly undertaken between SMEs and public sector research bodies; the SEEKIT (Scottish Executive Expertise, Knowledge and Innovation Transfer) programme, for projects that improve the ability of Scotland's science base to work with business; and support for companies in marketing and product launch. From 2004-05 onwards, this budget line has been subsumed into Innovation Support;

• Research provision is used to support the development and evaluation of departmental policy and to assess the effectiveness of the delivery of relevant services;

• Grant aid for the Royal Society of Edinburgh enables that body to support the development of the Scottish science base by a range of measures. The Royal Society also enables Scotland to benefit from international links by supporting exchanges, visits and the exchange of information;

• Scottish Qualifications Authority Accreditation Unit funding relates to grant-in-aid for the running costs of the Accreditation Unit, including costs for annual audits of all SVQ awarding bodies ( www.sqa.org.uk);

• The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework ( SCQF) is Scotland's unified qualifications framework encompassing both vocational and academic qualifications. It underpins and supports many of the goals in the Scottish Executive's Lifelong Learning Strategy and received widespread support from stakeholders in all sectors of education and training in Scotland. Through credit transfer, it allows learners to receive maximum recognition of all the learning they achieve, whether it is in the formal or informal setting. Funding will be used to further develop and implement the framework throughout all sectors in Scotland and to look at ways we can work with other national frameworks across the UK and Europe;

• The Determined to Succeed (DtS - formerly titled Enterprise in Education) budget of £22m per year in 2005-06 and beyond is provided to drive forward a key strategy through which young people at school will increasingly enjoy an enterprising education. DtS allows us to place enterprise at the heart of education in Scotland, encouraging young people to be innovative, creative and entrepreneurial, and so better prepare them for the world of work;

• From 2003-04, the All Age Guidance budget was transferred to the Skills and Learning budget lines of Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. The budget is essentially for staff and is therefore best made available to the Enterprise networks through their respective Grant-in-Aid allocations;

• Beattie Inclusiveness funding is used to improve post-school transitions to further education, training and employment for young people with additional support needs, in particular the Not in Education, Employment or Training ( NEET) group (16-19 years). It is also funding the development of Post School Psychological Services;

• The Adult Literacy and Numeracy budget covers a number of smaller budgets that aim to provide national support towards raising the literacy and numeracy levels of 150,000 adults by 2006. This budget was transferred to Communities Scotland from 2004-05;

• The Scottish Union Learning Fund distributes grant funding to support effective and sustainable activity by trade unions and their partners to encourage workplace learning;

• The Sector Skills Development Agency ( SSDA) budget will go towards two major activities (1) a marketing and publicity campaign for the Skills for Business network in Scotland and (2) additional funding for each of the Sector Skills Councils developing a Sector Skills Agreement to carry out further work in Scotland.

• The funding for Sector Skills Councils ( SSCs) enables them to carry out demand-side projects which meet Scotland's distinctive learning and skills needs. This budget also provides some core funding to the Sector Skills Alliance Scotland (formerly SCONTO) to enable it to represent the interests of SSCs;

• Business Gateway International Trade ( formerly titled Export Partnerships) is a Scottish wide network of business councillors experienced in exporting, who deliver Scottish Development International (trade) services locally to clients within the SEn and HIELEC areas, and co-ordinate the exporting efforts of the Local Authorities and Chambers of Commerce;

• HQ and training grants support national voluntary sector adult education providers;

• The first phase of the ILA Scotland scheme was launched in December 2004. This provides targeted funding (up to £200 per annum) to adults in Scotland who earn less than £15,000 per annum, which they can use towards the fee costs of a wide range of courses offered by approved learning providers. The second phase of ILA Scotland was launched on 1 August 2005. This extends funding (up to £100 per annum) to all adults in Scotland, to be used towards the fee costs of Information and Communications technologies ( ICT) courses at basic skills level, offered by approved providers and which lead to qualifications or recognised certification;

• The Science Centres budget is aimed at improving 'science literacy' and fostering a pro-science and innovation culture in Scotland. The budget is intended to encourage each of the four Centres (in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow) to work collaboratively to an agreed joint strategy for improving their business and contribution to science education, aimed at people of all ages. In 2005-06, Scottish Executive funding levered an additional £2.2m to Scotland in ReDiscover IV funding from the Millennium Commission, Wolfson Foundation and Wellcome Trust, to support unique and ambitious capital projects that will enhance further the educational experience currently available at the Centres. Funding for 2006-07 will build on and expand upon this; and

• The miscellaneous budget comprises a total of 23 minor projects, each one of which is worth less than £500,000.

OTHER ENTERPRISE AND LIFELONG LEARNING RELATED LOCAL AUTHORITY FUNDING

Spending Plans 2002-08

Table 6.12 More detailed categories of spending (Level 3)

What the budget does

The Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Grant Aided Expenditure ( GAE) figures relate to the level of local authority net revenue expenditure on these services that the Executive is supporting through grant. GAEs are not budgets, but more a basis for the distribution of grant through Aggregate External Finance ( AEF). Local authorities are, however, free to allocate their available resources to each service, including Enterprise and Lifelong Learning-related services, on the basis of local need. The figures in this table are included in the GAE summary table (Table 10.04) contained within the Finance and Public Service Reform chapter of this document.

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