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Meeting of the Parliament 14 June 2012

14 Jun 2012 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Youth Employment

Dugdale, Kezia Lab Lothian Watch on SPTV

It is interesting that the minister says that this is the first year that SDS has collected figures in such detail. At First Minister’s question time, the First Minister referred to figures from 2006. I asked the Scottish Parliament information centre where the figures came from and learned that they came from a survey of people who had been through training and apprenticeship programmes. They were not like-for-like figures.

On the myth about 2006, I say to the minister that back in 2006 Labour did not count level 2 modern apprenticeships in the form in which they existed at the time. That is fact 1—and it is level 2 apprenticeships that account for the significant growth in the number of modern apprenticeships. The important fact is that in 2006 youth unemployment in Scotland was 60,000, whereas now the figure is 100,000. The Government says that I have a cheek in criticising a programme that is exactly the same as the Labour one; I think that the Government has a cheek in taking the same approach to apprenticeships in a time of crisis as Labour took when the economy was booming.

The SNP cannot escape the simple fact that it said that it would create 25,000 modern apprenticeships to tackle youth unemployment in this country, when the reality is that it is not doing so and 100,000 young Scots who are without jobs are paying the price.

If the minister insists on harking back to when Labour was in power, let me say to her that, according to figures that are published on the Scottish Government website, Labour spent £60 million in 2006-07 on creating 15,869 apprenticeships, whereas the SNP is spending £72 million to create 26,427 apprenticeships. The SNP is spending £1,000 less per apprentice throughout Scotland. In truth, the commitment to 25,000 modern apprenticeships is a slogan that works for Alex Salmond but it is not a policy that is working for Scotland’s 100,000 young unemployed people.

In the debate in February I asked the minister to take forward and report to the Parliament on three things. I said that long-term youth unemployment had doubled in the six months before the debate. It has now quadrupled. Jenny Marra will talk at greater length about that. I asked the minister for a strategy to address long-term youth unemployment, but the Parliament has yet to see a finalised strategy for youth employment—and the minister has spent all her money. I also asked the minister about procurement, which Iain Gray will talk about in his speech.

I repeat my call for the Scottish Government to be straight with people. That is the very least that 100,000 young Scots can expect.

I move amendment S4M-03295.2, to insert at end:

“; is concerned that current efforts to tackle youth unemployment through the modern apprenticeship (MA) programme are falling short of the needs of 100,000 unemployed young people in Scotland, with 10,000 MAs undertaken in 2011-12 by those in jobs for six months or more; is further concerned by the spike in long-term youth unemployment, now four times greater than last year, and considers that Scotland needs a finalised youth employment strategy that not only gets young people to work, but equips them with the skills to compete in a global labour market.”

15:34

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Meeting of the Parliament 14 June 2012

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