Meeting of the Parliament 13 May 2015
It is a pleasure to talk about Scottish apprenticeship week 2015. I am glad to see that the target set for 20,000 modern apprenticeship starts each year is on track and may be exceeded this year. The young people involved see the programme as a positive experience, with 98 per cent saying that they found it useful.
The role of Scottish apprenticeship week is to celebrate the success of the scheme, but we should also be able to reflect on the things that can be done better. Instead of only increasing the number of modern apprenticeships, we need to start looking at quality and equality. I have been in discussions with Skills Development Scotland, which has informed me of the progress in modern apprenticeship starts from minority communities, with the proportion rising from 1.1 to 1.4 per cent. As ethnic minorities make up 6 per cent of the population aged between 18 and 24, that is still a major underrepresentation. Analysis by the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights of apprentices in training on 31 March 2014 found that a young person from an ethnic minority background was eight times less likely to be in a modern apprenticeship than a young white Scottish person was.
I welcome the creation of the key performance indicators to increase the number of modern apprenticeship starts from minority ethnic communities to equal the population share by 2021. However, that is a long-term target and I want to see evidence of the political will to achieve it. I want to know what the Scottish Government will do in the next six months, rather than in the next six years.
I understand that Skills Development Scotland is beginning to work with BEMIS—Black & Ethnic Minority Infrastructure Scotland—to increase participation by ethnic minorities. In my discussions with SDS, I raised my concerns that BEMIS does not currently have the capacity or ability to deliver such a challenging target, especially on a Scotland-wide basis. I do not mean any disrespect to BEMIS as an organisation when I say that.
I am not going to let it be a box-ticking exercise. I will not allow the Scottish Government to get away with giving some money to one ethnic minority organisation so that it feels as if it has done something in that area. I do not want to see a few events around Scotland, inviting the usual suspects from mosques and community associations to eat and be talked to, with no real engagement, no real change and no real outcomes. Those symbolic samosa events are no longer acceptable.
I want the Government to be proactive. There is no point in just asking people to apply. What we need is support for minority ethnic people to get the skills that they need to apply for apprenticeships or jobs in the first instance.