Oil and Gas Transition Training Fund - Island Communities Impact Assessment

4. Assessment

By supporting Scottish residents to re-skill from an O&G industry which is undergoing slowing demand into growing alternative sectors, we are protecting Scottish workers from potential future redundancy. This offer of funded re-skilling can only be seen positively. There is no difference in this offer for mainland Scotland residents compared to residents of Scottish islands.

TTF will be available for residents of Scottish islands and/ or those who work or intend to work on Scottish islands. This is not the case at present for the Pilot which was restricted to some parts of the Scottish mainland. Therefore, the fund will have a positive impact to island employment.

The destination sectors are strongly represented as sources of economic activity and employment across the main Scottish island groups. The TTF is a training provision fund, not a job creation programme, but the upskilling is more likely to support employment opportunities and have a positive impact on the provision of skills for posts available within islands.

There are existing challenges for island communities such as travel costs and time, and it is recognised this may mean additional barriers to access to some training offers for some island residents. However, any barriers would not be exacerbated by TTF.

While in some cases, training may only be offered in-person on the mainland, a large proportion of training providers offer blended online / live streamed training alongside in-person courses. The expectation that the majority of training will be available online will be monitored with our delivery partner. However, there is a reasonable expectation that an island resident, on occasion, would need to make the journey to the mainland for any service acquisition.

From the evidence of the National Islands Plan and HIE there is opportunity for TTF to support the deployment of skilled or reskilled workers more broadly within industrial roles which are important in some of Scotland’s key island areas.