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No One Left Behind is a place-based approach which sees decisions about services taken locally.

Design and delivery of employability services that meet the needs of users and local labour markets is the responsibility of the Local Employability Partnership (LEP). To support this, and ensure national coherence, we co-designed employability service standards with partners and users. LEPs are required to uphold the expectations set out in the service standards, including ensuring their services are accessible and take account of the experience of users across every area of Scotland.

Learning and evaluation continue to be a key aspect of our approach to employability services in Scotland.

We will consider the recommendations from the implementation evaluation of No One Left Behind and the Young Person’s Guarantee, alongside the outputs from our recent national stakeholder discussion events and actions will be reviewed to identify how we can improve.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with local government partners in each local authority to promote and drive an increase in the reach of our services across all of Scotland.

We recognise the important role the third sector can play in supporting people to access support they are entitled to and are committed to working in partnership to develop our devolved approach to employability.

Both Scottish and Local Government have been clear that No One Left Behind will deliver a mixed economy of provision at a local level, meaning organisations including those in the third sector can continue to have a role in providing support based on local demand.

At a local level, Local Employability Partnerships (LEPs) bring together a range of partners including the third sector to build local capacity and take a collective leadership approach to decision making within their local areas to meet service user and labour market needs.

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with local employability partners in each local authority to promote and drive an increase in the reach of our services across all of Scotland.

At a local level, Local Employability Partnerships will deliver a mixed economy of provision bringing together a range of partners including, third sector organisations, ensuring that they continue to have a core role in provision of support based on local demand.

Data collected is recorded as a collective for 16–24-year-olds and not broken down by funding stream. Therefore, we are not able to provide a breakdown of training opportunities that are funded through Young Person’s Guarantee. Our Devolved Employment Services: statistical summaries, which included data on‎ 16–24-year-olds, are published quarterly and are available on our gov.scot website.

Our employability services are designed and delivered at a local level by Local Employability Partnerships who determine the level of funding allocated to Employer Recruitment Incentives within their areas.

Specific details on funding Employer Recruitment Incentives are not held by the Scottish Government, therefore requests for this information would need to be directed towards Local Authorities.

Employability contacts for each local authority can be found on the Employability in Scotland website which can be accessed here:

Support available through the Young Person’s Guarantee was delivered through Local Employability Partnerships, with Local Authorities acting as lead accountable body.

Employability support for young people is now delivered through No One Left Behind, which continues to utilise the Local Employability Partnership approach for delivery of support.

Awareness and promotion of the Young Person’s Guarantee among employability staff was achieved using existing networks and communication channels.

Support available through the Young Person’s Guarantee was delivered through Local Employability Partnerships, with Local Authorities acting as lead accountable body.

Specific details on Employer Recruitment Incentives are not held by the Scottish Government, therefore requests for this information would need to be directed towards Local Authorities.

Employability contacts for each local authority can be found on the Employability in Scotland website which can be accessed here:

The SQA will be replaced by the new qualifications body in late 2025, after the 2025 exam diet. There will be a period of transition with transfer arrangements in place to support this process.

The intention is for the Scottish Qualifications Authority to continue to operate at the time of the 2024 and 2025 exam diets, with the new qualifications body being established in late 2025, after the 2025 exam diet.

The new body will therefore be responsible for overseeing the 2026 exam diet.

I have committed to updating the Scottish Parliament on Phase 3 of the Learning Estate Investment Programme by the end of October.