SSA procurement. Given the absence of any detailed information on procurement, the simple assumption could be made that 75% of all goods and services will be sourced in the Highlands and Islands, and that the rest will be brought in from elsewhere. Direct impact – £0.5 million (estimate only at this stage) Impact table These figures are only for guidance and are probably high, based on the fact that the SSA will have created the opportunity for these figures to be delivered – and rely on follow on ac- tivity from: • Highland schools in supporting pupils to STEMD qualifications - Highers etc • SDS in demonstrating the value of a STEMD career path • UHI in particular by supporting students to STEMD diplomas and degrees Therefore, a weighting figure relating to the additionality that SSA provides would have to be agreed to get to an impact figure that the SSA will deliver in the future - for example 50% - which would give an annual GVA impact of £5.6m per annum to the Highland economy. Application of multipliers and GVA ratios In the majority of cases, it was estimated the indirect and induced impacts of the SSA on the Highlands and Islands economy by applying the mean average Type II multiplier for the 90 industry groups listed in the most recent (2011) Scottish Input Output Tables). The only ex- ceptions to this were: • Taxes and benefit savings: as this money goes straight out of circulation, into the government reserves, so we haven’t applied any multipliers to these savings • Graduate salaries: as this is money going to individuals, rather than companies, there is no knock-on industry supply chain impacts here, so we have just included an induced impact (calculated as the Type II impact divided by the Type I impact). In the case of graduates we applied a multiplier for the whole economy and applied the multiplier for the education sector. In most cases, it was assumed a GVA ratio of 39%, equivalent to total Scottish GVA divided by total turnover in the Scottish economy. Again, the two exceptions were taxes and bene- fits, as this money all goes to the UK government, and therefore all counts as value added to the national economy. The economic value of improved educational performance A commitment to improving educational quality through radical reform is the current goal of many Governments. It is estimated by the organisation for Economic Cooperation and De- velopment (OECD) that a modest increase in STEM attainment by secondary school stu- dents - about as much as has ...
