About the region and our students
Evidence and alignment
10. This addendum to Ayrshire College’s three year Outcome Agreement (OA) covers the period
2015-16. The 2014-17 OA was informed by a detailed labour market analysis conducted by the
College which interrogated most of the data sets used in the Ayrshire Regional Skills
Assessment (RSA) which was published six months after the publication of the Outcome
Agreement. The data used in the RSA was a snapshot at a point in time, eg it used 2012-13
school leaver destinations and 2012-13 college statistics. We now have access to more recent
data with the publication of 2013-14 school leaver destinations in December 2014 and SFC
college data made available in January 2015. Also issued after the publication of the 2014-17
OA, were Skills Investment Plans (SIPs) for ICT, Life Sciences, Engineering and Chemical
Sciences. The College’s strategic plan takes account of these, as well as existing SIPs for
Energy, Food and Drink, Financial Services and Tourism. Curriculum planning for 2015-16
makes it clear how key actions from the relevant SIPs are being taken forward in the region.
11. The RSA confirmed the conclusions reached by the College’s earlier analysis of the data in
relation to economic and employment opportunities in the region. The percentage of the
working population by broad sector is highest in health, retail and manufacturing, closely
followed by those working in the food and drink sector. The top employing industries are retail,
health and care and tourism. In each of these sectors and industries, Ayrshire employs a
higher proportion than the Scottish average. In relative terms, the Ayrshire region is well
represented in three of the Scottish Government’s key economic growth sectors; tourism, life
sciences, and food and drink.
School leaver destinations
12. The most recent school leaver destinations report, published by Skills Development Scotland in
December 2014, shows that the trend on overall positive destinations for school leavers in
Ayrshire continued, increasing by 0.9 percentage points on the previous year. The high
proportion of school leavers moving onto FE study is similar to 2012-13, there were increases
in the proportion moving onto HE study and employment, and decreases in those moving into
training or unemployment.
Table 1: Ayrshire region school leaver destinations
HE
FE
TRAINING
2011-12
35.8
32.4
4.6
2012-13
34.6
35.8
4.5
2013-14
37.7
35.0
2.9
Scotland average
2011-12
37.3
26.7
4.6
2012-13
36.5
27.8
5.0
2013-14
38.6
26.3
4.1
Source: Skills Development Scotland
EMPLOYED
UNEMPLOYED
OTHER
+VE
TOTAL
15.6
16.0
16.1
10.2
7.5
6.8
0.9
1.6
1.4
89.4
92.5
93.1
3701
3936
3906
19.8
20.4
21.7
9.7
8.3
7.4
1.3
1.8
1.5
89.1
91.4
92.3
50885
52801
51876
13. Table 1 demonstrates the continued importance of FE and HE provision for the Ayrshire
region, with the proportion of school leavers moving into FE in Ayrshire again significantly
higher than the Scottish average. More than a third (35 percent) of school leavers moved onto
2015-16 Addendum to Ayrshire College Outcome Agreement
4