Scottish Conservative leader blames college cuts for trade skills shortage

Small businesses are suffering as a result of the “decimation” of Scotland’s colleges, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has said.

Ms Davidson used recent research from the Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland to attack college reforms during First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood.

She linked the finding that one in three members struggle to recruit enough skilled workers with cuts to college places.

Ms Davidson cited figures showing that in the five years to 2013/14, the SNP administration cut 150,000 part-time college places and replaced them with 9,000 full-time ones.

Official figures show part-time places at Fife College fell by 19,546, while there are 9,846 fewer part-time students at Dundee and Angus College compared to five years ago.

The mitigation was an extra 364 full-time students at Dundee and Angus College and an additional 884 in Fife.

“For the first time we now know what those cuts mean for individual communities,” Ms Davidson told MSPs.

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon pointed out that the Scottish Government had promised to maintain 116,000 full-time college places and had delivered 119,636 places.