NEWS
I often find myself publicly sharing my opinions about apprenticeships and people
development. Perhaps even more so now that I have two further platforms via my roles with the SPAA and the Scottish Chamber of Commerce. I certainly don’t tire of sharing the benefits that
Jacqueline Dobson PRESIDENT, BARRHEAD TRAVEL
Governments must uphold pledges to train young people
businesses can enjoy when they invest in apprentices and support people with learning and opportunity. What is rather tiring, however, is continually seeing all promises and no action from our governments when it comes to the skills agenda. The travel industry was hit with several blows
last year when the UK government announced it was defunding travel and tourism courses. In Scotland, as well as delays to funding in 2023, we heard that courses for travel would be non-existent in colleges by summer 2024. In March, it was welcome
news to hear that the UK government announced funding to support up to 20,000 apprentices for small businesses. It also pledged to allow larger businesses to now transfer 50% of unused levy funds to different employers. With schemes like Jet2’s Appoint an Apprentice, this is good news. But I don’t think the heart of the issue has really been addressed – and certainly not across the UK. Scotland, for example, is bound by different levy rules, despite paying into the same pot as our English counterparts.
government states that the funding should be increased and that there should be better ways of distributing funding to levy-paying businesses. Why then, are the government’s actions at such odds with its independent report? As well as penalising Scottish businesses, which
will continue to pay into the UK levy pot without being able to access the funds that are filtered back to the Scottish government through the FWDF, it will have a knock-on impact on colleges and educational institutions across the country.
“The withdrawal of the FWDF fund is a double blow for travel in Scotland,
Financial strain Our college partners have been working closely with us to maximise opportunities with the FWDF for years – we know we’re just one of thousands of partners. Losing this funding will mean that there are even more financial strains on colleges, and therein lies the risk of even more courses closing. For businesses like Barrhead
given the defunding of training courses”
Travel, we’re fortunate that we have our own in-house Training Academy and are able to build bespoke training programmes to suit our business. However, some businesses don’t have the luxury of in-house training teams and, for them, the consequence will be concerning. Skills development funding must
be ring-fenced, particularly when it comes to the levy which businesses are self-funding. The withdrawal of the FWDF will impact all
Outrageous move Most recently, in fact, the Scottish government made the decision to withdraw the Flexible Workforce Development Fund (FWDF): this is the money which is drawn directly from the levy. This fund is distributed to levy-paying businesses
to allow them to address skills gaps, upskill their people and invest in development opportunities. The Scottish Funding Council has announced that, due to cuts made in the Scottish government’s autumn budget, there will be no funding available for businesses for at least the next two years. In my opinion, this is an outrageous move.
Even an independent report commissioned and published earlier this year by the Scottish
10 4 APRIL 2024
industries in Scotland. But for travel, it’s a double blow, given the lack of industry training providers and apprenticeship courses already being defunded. It is a problem that our industry must unite to tackle. I have to hope that the UK government’s
pledge to reform funding for apprentices will genuinely benefit the businesses and the young people that it claims it is targeting. In the meantime, our advocacy work continues
as we hope to try to influence meaningful change on these issues this year. I’ll never stop championing young people and development opportunities.
Read more by Jacqueline Dobson:
go.travelweekly.co.uk/comment
travelweekly.co.uk
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