Committee
Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee 16 March 2021
16 Mar 2021 · S5 · Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee
Item of business
Covid-19 (Impact on Businesses, Workers and the Economy)
The pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for young people in going about their daily lives. Through no fault of their own, they are among the people who have been hardest hit by the economic harms that have resulted from the virus. The pandemic’s impact is also exacerbating inequalities that have existed for some time across the labour market. Those who are on low incomes and who have insecure contracts, which are more prevalent among young people, have been the worst affected. Sectors such as hospitality and non-essential retail that employ large numbers of young people have been heavily affected by Covid-19 restrictions. If those sectors cannot take on new workers or if more businesses have to make people redundant once the furlough period ends, we will need to work with a wider range of employers in other sectors to create job opportunities. We are working on the issue through our national mission to create jobs and through our young persons guarantee. In facing the unprecedented challenges, we must all work together to help the young generation make the transition into work and to ensure that youth unemployment is not a legacy of the pandemic. When I appeared before the committee in October, I said that we were in a different position from the one that we were in after the previous recession. We have strong foundations in place to support young people, such as the developing the young workforce programme; strong partnerships with local government; a well-established skills agency in Skills Development Scotland; locally responsive and person-centred employability programmes, which are delivered through the no one left behind approach; and world-class universities and colleges. We have created opportunities, and a primary focus of the young persons guarantee is to ensure that young people know what support is available to them and how they can access it. Through the guarantee, we have intentionally adopted a no-wrong-door approach, under which delivery partners work collectively to ensure that all young people who require support can access it through existing points of contact that they are familiar with, such as Skills Development Scotland, careers advisers, developing the young workforce school co-ordinators, local authority employability support officers, colleges and specialist service providers in the third sector. The young persons guarantee website also provides details on the range of opportunities that are on offer and on additional points of contact for young people. Our discussions today about the impact of Covid-19 on young people are vital as we work collectively to ensure that young people’s prospects are not permanently damaged. I know that all of us share that ambition. I am happy to take questions.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Con
Under item 2, we will look at the impact of Covid-19 on businesses, workers and the economy. I welcome the Minister for Business, Fair Work and Skills, Jamie...
The Minister for Business, Fair Work and Skills (Jamie Hepburn)
SNP
The pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for young people in going about their daily lives. Through no fault of their own, they are among the people...
The Convener
Con
Thank you very much, minister. The United Kingdom Government has announced an extension to the coronavirus job retention scheme until September, as part of ...
Jamie Hepburn
SNP
It would be churlish not to welcome the fact that the coronavirus job retention scheme has been extended. It would have been still better if there had been a...
The Convener
Con
The Covid situation is not a result of either Government’s handling of matters. The question is how best to come out of it. There might be no perfect answer ...
Jamie Hepburn
SNP
I recognise that the furlough scheme gives businesses more certainty. The fact that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced a significant extension, wh...
Gordon MacDonald (Edinburgh Pentlands) (SNP)
SNP
Good morning. You mentioned in your opening remarks that unemployment is not evenly spread among different cohorts of the population and that young people ar...
Jamie Hepburn
SNP
Yes, I can give you those figures. The latest figure that I have is that the unemployment rate for 16 to 24-year-olds in Scotland is 11.1 per cent, so we are...
Gordon MacDonald
SNP
It is good news that we are supporting young people to go into training, an apprenticeship or employment, where it is available. Another issue that we have ...
Jamie Hepburn
SNP
As you mention, there are in effect two ways in which we can talk about underemployment. There is the established technical analysis of hours of employment, ...
Richard Lyle (Uddingston and Bellshill) (SNP)
SNP
Will you give an update on how many apprenticeships have been supported through the apprenticeship employer grant and the adopt an apprentice scheme? How doe...
Jamie Hepburn
SNP
In terms of the information that we have currently, it is probably a little early to report on the specifics around the apprenticeship employer grant. We wil...
Richard Lyle
SNP
The problem is that, with Covid, a lot of firms are in flux, so I would also expect the figures to be in flux. The latest data show the impact of the pande...
Jamie Hepburn
SNP
That largely falls in the same sphere in that we report those figures come the end of the financial year. They will be reported along with the other apprenti...
Richard Lyle
SNP
Covid-19 has had a tremendous effect on every business across the board—I would not expect otherwise. I agree with you, minister, that if we can bounce back ...
The Convener
Con
We now come to questions from the deputy convener, Willie Coffey.
Willie Coffey (Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley) (SNP)
SNP
My questions are in the same area that Dick Lyle was asking about—graduate apprenticeships and the target of 30,000 starts. You will be aware that employment...
Jamie Hepburn
SNP
A lot of that falls into the sphere of our young persons guarantee approach, more generally. Sandy Begbie, who, as you will all be aware, is the chief execut...
Willie Coffey
SNP
What are employers asking for specifically? Do they need help to take on more university and college graduates in this crucial year, when Covid has affected ...
Jamie Hepburn
SNP
It is a mix of things. The fundamental thing that they have told us—incidentally, this is not only in the context of Covid; it has been a long-standing reque...
Willie Coffey
SNP
That is great. I have a final question. Clearly, because of the Covid situation, we will not hit the target of 30,000 apprentices, which you mentioned in r...
Jamie Hepburn
SNP
We will probably be quite cautious for this coming year, because of the challenge that we face, which goes back to the dialogue that we have had around the l...
Willie Coffey
SNP
Many thanks for that, minister. Back to you, convener.
The Convener
Con
I would not want to be churlish either, minister, but I wonder whether you have papers rustling about your microphone, because we can hear that quite loudly....
Jamie Hepburn
SNP
I will do my best, convener. I try to remember as much of the information off the top of my head as I can. I am also reliably informed that the microphone on...
The Convener
Con
We can hear you and make you out, but there is a snowstorm of sound as well. We will all try to do our best.
Maurice Golden (West Scotland) (Con)
Con
Minister, £125 million was announced in the 2021-22 budget for the young persons guarantee scheme and wider employability support. Will you provide an update...
Jamie Hepburn
SNP
I was more tentative in turning my pages, so I hope that that has helped with the sound. I will lay that out for Maurice Golden. As I said earlier, £60 mill...
Maurice Golden
Con
Thank you, minister. Will you provide an update on how alignment between the young persons guarantee and the climate emergency skills action plan has been tr...
Jamie Hepburn
SNP
Yes. That goes to the very heart of my point about trying to meet our societal and economic imperatives. One of the societal imperatives, as we know, is to b...