Hansard

Thank you, Presiding Officer. I see the look in your eye and I will try to finish my speech in a little less time than that.

Today is an opportunity to promote the forthcoming Scottish apprenticeship week and celebrate the success of Scotland’s modern apprentices and everyone who is associated with the programme, which has become a key element of our approach to economic development and youth employment.

The prominence of apprenticeships across the manifestos for the recent general election illustrates cross-party understanding of their importance. They are unique in the way that they support young people into sustainable and rewarding careers and contribute to meeting our businesses’ skills needs. Modern apprenticeships not only support young people but are open to people of all ages, which is right, given the diverse needs of the businesses that use them. Today I will focus on the important role that they play in supporting our ambitions for youth employment.

The overall success of Scotland’s modern apprenticeship programme is undeniable and its contribution to our economy continues to evolve. This Government has grown the programme from 15,000 starts in 2007 to more than 25,000 new places each year for the past three years. The opportunities span the Scottish economy, from sectors with a long tradition of training apprentices, such as construction and engineering, to growth in newer sectors for apprenticeships, such as financial services. We are now committed to increasing the target to at least 30,000 new modern apprenticeship opportunities each year by 2020. That is a central part of our ambition to develop a world-class vocational education system that matches our world-class—and free—higher education system.

We must ensure that, like all parts of our education system, work-based learning is valued by employers and offers opportunities to all young people, irrespective of their background. We must ensure that more employers—particularly small employers—engage with the programme, and we need to align modern apprenticeship opportunities with emerging growth sectors across our economy.

I want to say something about the upcoming week. I congratulate Skills Development Scotland on its work to deliver Scotland’s modern apprenticeship programme. I also congratulate the network of delivery partners, including private training providers, local authorities, third sector providers and colleges, which work every day with thousands of apprentices and employers across the country. Scottish apprenticeship week, which SDS is co-ordinating across Scotland, will highlight the reach and impact of the programme. I will take part in a range of events, including a business conference with the Scottish Council for Development and Industry and a visit to GTG Training to meet some of the apprentices it has in training. The Minister for Youth and Women’s Employment is also undertaking a number of visits. I understand that SDS has invited members to local apprenticeship week events around the country and I strongly encourage everyone to see for themselves the benefits that the programme delivers.

Over recent years, Scotland has made significant progress in addressing youth unemployment. It is important to acknowledge the crucial role played by employers, training providers, colleges and third sector organisations in supporting our young people towards and into work throughout an extremely challenging period of recession. A return to pre-recessionary levels of youth unemployment is an important milestone, but we must maintain our commitment to going further.

In partnership with local authorities, we have embarked on the implementation of an ambitious strategy to reduce youth unemployment by 40 per cent by 2021. That will take Scotland to a level that will match the top-performing European countries, and expanding our modern apprenticeship programme will make a key contribution to that. The strategy is as much about promoting to school pupils, and those who influence them, the fact that there are many routes into a wide variety of good jobs.

The world is changing rapidly and jobs are evolving. We need to develop the collaboration and crucial links that exist between schools, colleges and business, across children’s broad general education and senior phase, in exciting new ways in order to make that vision a reality. One way in which we are doing that is through the introduction of foundation apprenticeships, which offer young people the chance of work-based learning as part of an existing modern apprenticeship framework in the senior phase of school.

Any expansion in modern apprenticeships must be driven by employer demand. We already prioritise the funding contributions for modern apprenticeships towards key and enabling sectors of the economy, and we will continue to do that. Skills investment plans and regional skills assessments are important elements of Scotland’s skills planning system. Developed in partnership with industry, they provide a detailed insight into the current and future skills needs of Scotland’s economy, allowing our education and skills system to align with employer needs.

We want to persuade more employers to participate in the programme, so it is important that the quality of training that is being delivered remains at a high standard. This year, we are introducing a pathfinder project to independently quality assure the training that is delivered through the modern apprenticeship programme.

In its report, the commission for developing Scotland’s young workforce—the Wood commission—highlighted key equality challenges across vocational education. I know that there are many members in the chamber who have particular concerns in that area. Those equality challenges are also evident in our labour market and, indeed, in our society, so we all must take those challenges seriously.

Through our youth employment strategy, we committed to bring forward new initiatives to encourage more people from underrepresented groups to take part in the modern apprenticeship programme. As cultural norms do not change quickly, some of that activity will need to address wider societal issues in the long term. However, we must also look to make improvement now, where we can.

To implement that commitment, we provided SDS with additional funding in 2014-15 to develop a range of equality activity, and I would like to highlight examples of some of the work that that supported.

It is important that we recognise that progress has been made on occupational segregation within the modern apprenticeship programme. In 2013-14, 41 per cent of modern apprenticeship starts were women, compared with 27 per cent in 2008-09. That is good progress but there are still significant gender imbalances that need to be addressed. We need to widen young people’s perceptions from an early stage to ensure that they make more informed choices.

SDS is already working with leading gender equality organisations and local authorities to challenge and tackle gender segregation. Through the recent SDS campaign—you work, you learn, you earn—we promote modern apprenticeships as a career option for young women, encouraging them to consider modern apprenticeship roles in sectors that are traditionally regarded as male dominated. The minister and I have met a number of those young women in areas of the labour market that would not normally be associated with women’s employment. Women are beginning to move into those areas, and it is good that those role models now exist.

SDS is working with a number of wider partners, including Engender, Close the Gap, Equate, the Institute of Physics and the Construction Industry Training Board, to identify and address some of the most difficult and ingrained issues that are preventing young women from considering non-traditional areas of employment.

During 2013-14, only 0.4 per cent of all modern apprenticeship starts declared themselves as having a disability. I know that that is a matter of concern for a great number of people. That figure is based on self-declaration, with evidence of some underreporting. Nonetheless, disabled people are underrepresented within modern apprenticeships, just as they are in the workforce. We need to work on a number of fronts to change the perceptions of employers, parents and young disabled people themselves. Some of the steps that SDS is currently taking to achieve that include working with Barnardo’s and Remploy on specific targeted pathway projects to help, through the employability fund, more than 100 disabled young people to enter a modern apprenticeship. That aligns with the help that is available through community jobs Scotland, which is already providing support and job training opportunities to unemployed young people aged 16 to 24, including those who face additional barriers to employment.

However, increasing the participation of disabled people in work goes beyond the modern apprenticeship programme, obviously. The Department for Work and Pensions access to work programme plays an important role in helping disabled people in Scotland to remain in work. I would be concerned if reported proposals to limit the support that is available through access to work adversely impacted disabled people in Scotland.