£36 million digital growth fund to help Scottish firms boost staff skills
Nicola Sturgeon will announce £36 million of loans for digital skills training for Scottish businesses as part of a drive to improve economic productivity.
Nicola Sturgeon will announce £36 million of loans for digital skills training for Scottish businesses as part of a drive to improve economic productivity.
The Digital Growth Fund will provide loans to up to 18,000 people in three years, aimed at increasing proficiency in areas such as cyber security, data analytics and software engineering.
Speaking at the SNP's spring conference in Aberdeen on Saturday, the First Minister is expected to say: "Recent studies estimate that the economy needs 12,800 new workers with digital skills each year. Despite this, our last digital economy survey found that only around a quarter of businesses were doing anything to develop current employees' digital technology skills.
"We need to change that. Scotland cannot afford to ignore this prize. That's why we will now boost our support for digital skills.
"We will develop a new £36 million, three-year support fund to meet the upfront business costs of digital skills training. This will see up to 6,000 people per year able to access the training they need in key areas like software development, web design and digital marketing. It will also allow firms to use government funding to pay for the training their staff need, repaying the funding in later years.
"We will work with business to lift the upfront burden of upskilling Scotland's workforce from the balance sheets of business, giving firms the freedom to invest in their staff and in their future.''