Vulnerable people could be left without the opportunity to gain employment training after a funding scheme closed abruptly
Vulnerable people could be left in limbo after an employability support fund closed abruptly.
Individual Training Accounts, a personalised award which is administered by Skills Development Scotland (SDS), was closed on Friday (7 December), just hours after training providers were informed.
The fund aims to support people into work and will help to deliver training places for 22,000 people.
On Friday the Skills Development Scotland website reported: “The early closure of the fund has been due to higher than anticipated demand. As a result, SDS met the target of 18,500 individuals in training ahead of schedule and we will now deliver approximately 22,000 places this year.”
However it is understood that employability programmes supporting vulnerable people are now under threat for the rest of the financial year.
Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) chief executive Anna Fowlie said this would leave vulnerable people in limbo.
She said: “Skills Development Scotland gave no warning of the decision to close access to Individual Training Accounts, nor did they consult on the possible impact. SCVO’s members who are involved in employability programmes have been working in good faith to deliver on Scottish Government’s No One Left Behind agenda and now find themselves unable to meet commitments to vulnerable people from our communities, or risk their own viability through shouldering the financial burden themselves.
“This short-term decision will have a long-lasting impact on people who are already significantly disadvantaged. For example, people who have recently come out of prison, for whom an accredited qualification would have been the first positive step towards meaningful societal re-integration have had that hope taken away from them.
“There are many others for whom employability programmes accessed through this fund offer a lifeline out of low-paid, precarious work have had their hope of a more sustainable future dashed. We all know that this is likely to result in re-offending, dependence on benefits and other welfare support, sometimes for the first time but often compounding past histories, which then become even harder to leave behind – all much more expensive to the public purse than ITAs.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We remain committed to delivering flexible learning opportunities that meet the needs of employers and learners.
“The Individual Training Account programme has been very successful and the Scottish Government will make significant additional funding available to ensure that Skills Development Scotland deliver 22,000 ITA starts in 2018/19 against the target of 18,500.
“This additional funding will ensure that anyone who had verified training through an ITA will be able to access the programme this year.
“To ensure the sustainability of the programme SDS communicated that new learners accessing the programme will be able to do so from April 2019 and the Scottish Government have asked SDS to ensure that individual learners and training providers can continue to register interest in accessing training from that point.”
