Place on SNP study scheme costs more than Harvard
A FLAGSHIP SNP scheme is failing to attract applicants, making each place cost more than a year at Harvard University.
Official figures show that the Scottish Government’s Graduate Apprenticeship initiative has attracted only 27 people since it was launched in 2015-16.
With figures released for the first three quarters of this financial year, 30 per cent of the places remain unfilled.
The SNP has spent almost £1.6million on the scheme since it began, which means each placement has cost £58,222.
This is nearly £7,000 more than the bill for studying at prestigious Harvard in the United
‘More concerned with separation’
States for a year. It currently costs $63,025 (£51,806.55) for tuition, room and board at the Ivy League college in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The university is ranked sixth in the world and was attended by US presidents John F Kennedy and Barack Obama.
Graduate Apprenticeships are part of the SNP’s flagship Modern Apprenticeship scheme which forges links between businesses, students and universities. Increasing the number signing up was part of a manifesto pledge.
It allows applicants the chance to gain a qualification from university or college while working in their field of study. The work outwith university or college also counts towards a participant’s final qualification.
Those on the graduate scheme are paid while carrying out the work or studying and can be awarded a qualification up to masters level.
National agency Skills Development Scotland has said the reason for the slowdown in recruitment is ‘concerns about economic stability’.
Yesterday, Labour MSP Daniel Johnson said: ‘These figures prove that the SNP is only interested in paying lip service to delivering on apprenticeships.
‘We already know Scotland’s economic performance is struggling, with ministers more concerned with obsessing about separation rather than providing opportunities for our young people. These figures are just another warning that the SNP needs to refocus on growing our economy.’
He added: ‘SNP politicians made increasing the number of apprenticeships a big part of their manifesto, but now it looks like they will struggle to meet their commitment.
‘To have spent £1.5million but delivered just 27 Graduate Apprenticeships is also indicative of a government that has dropped the ball on opportunities for our young.’
Earlier this week, Scottish Labour revealed that the SNP is spending only half the amount on apprenticeships per head than England and Wales.
A spokesman for Employability and Training Minister Jamie Hepburn said: ‘The suggestion that an individual graduatelevel apprenticeship costs more than to study at Harvard is utter nonsense.’
He added that the investment made in developing Graduate Apprenticeships would ‘provide a large number of opportunities for people to undertake an apprenticeship to degree level qualification, something that employers, higher education institutions and people across Scotland have welcomed’.
But he said: ‘It is undoubtedly the case we need to do more to ensure better diversity in those undertaking apprenticeships, and Skills Development Scotland are working to their Equality Action Plan to that end.’