Seòmar agus comataidhean

That was done last year and it is being done next year.

Good morning. I have two or three questions about the colleges’ reliance on Scottish Government funding and the overall picture in that regard but, first, I want to follow up on the budget question that the convener opened with, which was about the potential impact of the proposed budget settlement and the reduction in funding for colleges.

We always focus on budget proposals and we rarely give any attention to what happened during the course of a year—the outturn, if you like. Karen, you gave examples of what is actually happening, compared with the predictions and projections that were made at the start of the year about what might happen. Can you give us a wee flavour of what impacts the previous budget cut has actually had and what you are seeing emerging? I know that we have not reached the end of the financial year, but can you give us a clue as to how the outturn is looking in respect of the areas that you mentioned?

You mentioned digital. I visited Ayrshire College recently and spoke to its principal. We shared the view that the digital solutions for training during Covid were really beneficial, but she also said that the students prefer to be in college. I think that the committee is aware of that. Altering the balance between online digital learning and in-person learning by students who are present in college would not be used as a way to reduce costs, would it?

I will give a local example. A firm in Ayrshire came to me and said, “Your college doesn’t do any roofing courses.” I asked the principal about that, and she confirmed that the college does not provide any roofing courses—even though the firm needs them—because the demand has not been there. There were only a few inquiries about such courses over two years. That is bound to be a common story across Scotland—a company saying to a college, “Why don’t you do this?”

Can we get better at that? Can we regionalise provision, for example? Can we support employers by putting on the courses that they want? Would we have to ask them to pay? I do not think that we have ever done that. How do we get smarter in that area, where an employer says that they need skills but the college does not deliver them? How do we solve that?

The committee is probably more interested in the impact of the cuts. We are interested in how colleges’ behaviour has changed and what is happening with staffing, programmes, courses, skills and so on. There are always predictions at the start of the year about what proposed budget cuts would mean, but do they actually mean those things? Do those things happen, in your experience? What outturn is emerging, in your opinion?

It is good to hear that.

I want to ask about colleges’ ability to pursue non-Scottish Funding Council revenue streams. We all know that colleges used to benefit from European Union funding. Universities can pursue external associations with sponsor companies and so on in order to conduct research, for example. Are there any barriers that prevent colleges from reaching out to local or regional businesses or anyone else—even in Europe—to seek partnerships and working arrangements that will help them to fund the courses that we want to deliver?

Do they do it?

Thank you for that answer.

My final question is about the fact that, as you know, Ayrshire College is the only college in Scotland that continues to pay private finance initiative debts. It pays at a rate of £2 million a year and it has a year to go. Can you give me and colleagues in the college an assurance that there will be no impact on the college’s future budget settlement from those payments coming to an end?

I think that that is the best answer that I will get. Thanks very much for that, Karen.

As things are, it was just not viable to put that course on, and that is where the matter stops. That course is not going to happen. Is there anything that we can do to overcome that gap?