Higher Education for the 21st Century Response to the Garrick Report

5. SCOTTISH HIGHER EDUCATION AND THE SCOTTISH ECONOMY

Recommendation 16 - We recommend that the Confederation of British Industry (Scotland), the Scottish Council Development and Industry and other employer associations should urge their members to give consideration to increasing provision of sponsorship opportunities and work experience for students.

Recommendation 17 - We recommend to higher education providers and employers that they should collaborate to develop more sponsorship and work experience opportunities which provide real benefit to both students and employers.

Recommendation 18 - We recommend to The Scottish Office Education and Industry Department that it should look in detail at the scope for developing additional work placement opportunities on the Shell Technology Enterprise Programme model using funds already channelled for support of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises.

The Government considers sponsorship and work experience for students to be a very useful way to encourage collaboration and interchange between industry and academia. It is convinced of the benefits to higher education providers, employers and the students themselves. Public funds are already used in a variety of ways and the Government would welcome increased involvement from both industry and academia in promoting this type of exchange. The Government is already a major sponsor of the Shell Technology Enterprise Programme (STEP) through DTI which supports the Programme on a UK wide basis. The Scottish Office also helps to promote and support the Programme through provision of facilities for Programme launches. The Local Enterprise Companies (LECs) also run placement schemes. The Government reviews on a regular basis the economy and effectiveness of the programmes it supports and will seek to ensure that lessons are learned from best practice. It may be difficult to expand STEP within its current format but the Government will look at the evaluation and consider what scope there may be. However, no commitment can be given on changes to funding structures until the results of The Scottish Office comprehensive spending review become available.