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I know. I am trying to cover a lot of ground so I can get everyone in.

I will bring Andy Witty to talk about colleges in a wee minute. Your submission also mentions that

“41.8% of graduates who left full-time education within the last five years in Scotland worked in a nongraduate role.”

Does SDS have a view on whether there are too many people at university or whether universities are offering the wrong degrees?

On the provision of workers, a significant number of working-age people in Scotland are economically inactive. Is SDS looking to use employability initiatives to try to bring more of those people into the workforce?

On the existing workforce, we know that Scotland has a much higher share of people working in the public sector. Are you looking at whether we can bring people from the public sector into private industry and attract people, if not from overseas because of the difficulties that we have with the devolution settlement and the structures around that, then other parts of the UK?

Good morning, and welcome to the 36th meeting in 2024 of the Finance and Public Administration Committee. The first item on our agenda is an evidence session on the Scottish budget 2025-26. I welcome to the meeting Andy Witty, director of strategic policy and corporate governance at Colleges Scotland; Reuben Aitken, managing director of Scottish Development International; Sandy Begbie CBE, chief executive officer of Scottish Financial Enterprise; Claire Mack, chief executive officer of Scottish Renewables; Gordon McGuinness, director of industry and enterprise networks at Skills Development Scotland; Dr Alastair McInroy, chief executive officer of Technology Scotland; and Professor Alastair Florence, director of the continuous manufacturing and crystallisation centre at the University of Strathclyde.

I intend to allow around 90 minutes for this session, with everyone having an opportunity to speak. If witnesses or members would like to be brought into the discussion at any point, please indicate to the clerks and I can then call you. I will ask the first question to Gordon McGuinness, and we will carry on from there.

Gordon, in your excellent submission, you have said that,

“In the next decade, Scotland has a generational economic opportunity, driven by a projected £230bn investment in key sectors.”

However, you also said—and frequently emphasised this issue throughout your submission—that

“there is an urgent need for action to significantly grow Scotland’s workforce.”

Given the fact that the Scottish Parliament has no powers over migration, what do you feel would be the best approach to growing Scotland’s workforce?

I will bring Claire Mack in next. I note that, in your submission, you say that you

“welcome that the Scottish Government has prioritised investment in renewable energy given it is our greatest opportunity to create sustainable economic growth which will deliver benefits for our entire society.”

There is still an issue with the gender balance. Is it still the case that a lot more males than females go into the industry?

I will bring in Alastair Florence, then ask Reuben Aitken to come in. A couple of colleagues are keen to come in, too, but I want to finish off this subject before they do and see whether we can move the discussion on a wee bit.

The reason why I want to bring you in, Alastair, is that I visited your facility just a few weeks ago and was very impressed by what you have. I will give a wee ad for your sector, just as I did for Alastair McInroy’s. In your submission, you say that

“Scotland has a life sciences sector that is rich in drug discovery, biotech, personalised medicines and medical devices spin-outs and start-ups building on the vibrant academic research track record in these fields.”

However, there is an element of frustration in your paper, because you talk about some of the amazing successes where investments in new capacity have boosted the industry in competitor economies such as in Indiana and North Carolina in the United States, and Kinsale, Limerick and Dublin in Ireland. You say that

“these investments align with locations where governments have made strategic investments in strategic national manufacturing research infrastructure enabling countries to drive innovation and develop homegrown talent.”

You suggest

“a different approach to funding.”

Indeed, you say that

“competitive funding seeks to promote excellence”

but just

“leads to ... increased administrative burden,”

and to people “chasing” the same money, with “cliff edges”, “high uncertainty” and so on. I will give you a few minutes to talk about what you think could be done better and more effectively by the Scottish Government.

You talk about real investments that are taking place now in other countries. Eli Lilly has made a $1 billion investment in Limerick and an $800 million investment in Kinsale. Pfizer is investing $1.2 billion in Ireland and AstraZeneca is investing $360 million in Dublin. You say that with that kind of support and investment from the Scottish Government, Scotland could be in a position to compete and attract similar types of investments in the future.

Sandy Begbie wants to make a specific point on that issue, so I will bring him in, to be followed by Reuben Aitken.

The political agnosticism that you mentioned is interesting. Ireland has more or less had that since about 1986, I believe, when it was at a nadir in economic terms. It has grown phenomenally ever since.

I turn to Ruben Aitken. Scottish Enterprise has produced a very impressive paper about all the successes that it has achieved. For example, it mentions supporting more than 960 companies with 1,340 projects, which will safeguard and create 16,782 jobs. It also mentions reducing 468,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, and levering £1.9 billion in capital expenditure and £449 million in research and development and innovation.

However, Scottish Enterprise’s budget appears to be reducing quite substantially in the 2025-26 budget. What is your view on that, and how will you maintain that level of success if, indeed, your allocation is reduced when we finally agree the budget?

You say:

“Our international team is based in Scotland and overseas with approximately 270 staff in total. Over 100 staff are based overseas across 23 different countries from 32 different offices”.

You also say:

“Foreign Direct Investment ... projects in Scotland have enjoyed continuous growth for the fourth consecutive year, increasing by 3.3%, against a background of total UK projects declining by 6.4%.”

You note that Scotland’s market share is 13.6 per cent of inward investment projects and that 26 per cent of the companies that were surveyed said that they plan to invest in Scotland, which represents a significant increase on last year. How valuable are the overseas offices? Some colleagues are of the view that they could be closed.