The Scottish Government

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ENTERPRISE AND LIFELONG LEARNING

The Enterprise and Lifelong Learning portfolio's aim is 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.

The focus is on helping to grow Scotland's economy through encouragement of entrepreneurship and new business formation, increasing the skills and education of the workforce and support for innovation and science base.

The priorities are to connect Scotland at home and abroad, close the opportunity gap and deliver efficient and effective public services. This is manifested in the key targets of:

Extending broadband connectivity for every area of Scotland to ensure Scotland's competitiveness both internally and internationally in both the public and private sectors

Ensuring further and higher education is accessible to everyone regardless of their background or personal circumstances

Achievements

• All communities circa. 99.7% of households are now able to access broadband services as a result of Broadband for Scotland project
• Successful widening of participation in adult learning through Individual Learning Account ( ILA), with over 10,000 people on low incomes supported to gain new ICT skills and qualifications

Broadband for Scotland

The Scottish Executive has had a broadband strategy in place since 2001 - its aim has been to encourage access to affordable broadband services. A connected economy is seen as a key driver not only of economic growth, but also learning and social inclusion. The evidence base suggests that broadband connectivity brings positive attributes to a connected economy and the Scottish Executive is continuing its commitment and effort to extend broadband communications infrastructure.

Through the £24M "Broadband for Scotland" initiative and its demand-side and supply-side measures, the Scottish Executive commitment delivered on its commitment to bring broadband to every community in Scotland by the end of 2005. Coverage has increased from just 43% in 2001 to over 99% now, placing Scotland ahead of most of Europe (and the world) on coverage - broadband coverage is now on a par with the rest of the UK and ahead of most of Europe. However there are still a number of households within communities that are "out of reach" of broadband, due to their distance from the exchange. The Executive is working with independent technical consultants to examine this issue as well as the viability of potential solutions. This work will report shortly and appropriate action will be outlined thereafter.

Similarly two pathfinder projects in the Highlands and Islands and the South of Scotland are underway which constitute major initiatives to provide higher capacity internet connectivity to the public sector in remote rural areas. Through aggregated public sector procurement, open competition and significant Executive financial support (£90M), the projects seek to encourage suppliers to invest in the necessary infrastructure to provide scalable, affordable bandwidth to serve the needs of schools and local government sites in the areas served.

The projects are being taken forward by the local councils in the project areas in the Highlands and Islands and South of Scotland. Contracts are likely to be signed by the end of 2006 with the rollout of services to commence shortly thereafter and completed by mid to late 2008.

Economic benefits of these activities include: access to markets, for example tourism; greater productivity; increased competitiveness; and broadening of the knowledge economy. These benefits will enhance the profile of the whole of Scotland as accessible to and from international markets. The social benefits are expected to be: more ubiquitous delivery of e-learning and e-government programmes; greater interaction between community members; and a reduction in the rural/urban divide.

Cathy Owen, Langs Hotel

Based in the heart of Glasgow, close to the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and key shopping areas, Langs Hotel uses broadband as an indispensable business tool.

The increasing trend away from telephony towards email means that a larger hotel like Langs can't operate without an internet connection, and broadband delivers the speed and capacity they need to offer appropriate customer service. Like many hotels, selling late inventory through online brokers such as Expedia enables the business to get the very best room usage, and allows them to respond quickly along their supply chain.

In addition, all rooms now offer an internet connection. This is especially important as wireless broadband connection is emerging as a necessary part of excellent room specification in the immediate future.

The hotel has also recently launched its own online shop. Created in response to high demand over the phone, vouchers for the hotel spa, restaurant and accommodation packages are now available online. The broadband connection allows staff to update the website with new offers when they want, rather than paying a third party to update their site.

Individual Learning Account Scotland ( ILA)

E-learning and digital access present new and innovative opportunities for course delivery to the further and higher education sectors. These opportunities are reinforcing the Executive's commitment to widening access and breaking down the barriers to lifelong learning. To support this commitment Information and Communication Technology ( ICT) is one of five core skills built into all Scottish Vocational Qualifications and into all national training programmes.

In addition the Scottish Executive through its close partner Learndirect Scotland (Scottish University for Industry) and the Student Awards Agency for Scotland ( SAAS), has introduced the ILA Scotland scheme which aims to promote access to ICT learning opportunities, in particular to people on low incomes or on benefits. Administered through a personal virtual account the scheme allows individual learners to claim funds for a wide range of ILA Scotland funded courses, to the value of £200. With the yearly budget of £19.3 million the scheme is intended to widen participation in adult learning and support the development of a quality learning provider base in Scotland.

Launched in December 2004 the scheme provides those learners that earn £15,000 or less with up to £200 per year towards the cost of learning and up to £100 a year to those that earn more than £15,000 a year. For 2006/2007 ILA 200 funding will also be made available for ICT courses that do not lead to a qualification.

Achievements of Individual Learning Accounts ( ILA)

• 250 learning providers across Scotland are now approved ILA Scotland learning providers. These include colleges, universities, private, voluntary and community-based providers. Applications from further learning providers for inclusion in the scheme are ongoing
• Over 40,000 'learning opportunities' on offer representing over 12,000 approved courses.
• 50,000 people have opened an individual learning account
• 25,000 courses booked, of which ICT courses are the most popular (50%)
• 24,000 learners have already used their ILA to start learning
• 80% of learners are doing courses leading to qualifications or certification

With ICT related courses such as e-Citizen proving to be most popular among the learners the scheme is not only contributing to the Scottish knowledge society and closing the opportunities gap but is acting as a platform that will allow people of Scotland to access and take advantage of reformed public services. Services that are efficient, accessible and personalised thus at the same time driving efficiency and productivity in the public sector even further.

Useful Links:

Scottish Executive Business and Industry
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Business-Industry/Enterprise

Scottish Executive Lifelong Learning
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/Life-Long-Learning

Scottish Executive Broadband Strategy
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Business-Industry/infrastructure/16614/5788

Individual Learning Account Scotland
http://www.ilascotland.org.uk/ILA+Homepage.htm

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