Hansard

Although I welcome the debate, I must express my concern about the way in which we tackle the problem. We build piecemeal projects that are never extended and which lack monitoring and review. The funds that we put in are akin to the money that was put into schools for social inclusion when I was teaching.

When I came to Parliament, we seemed at first to be repeating the debates over and over again without getting to the nub of the problem. The nub of the problem, as far as I am concerned, is that we need a strategy that takes our young people, as Alex Neil said, from pre-school provision through to their final years in secondary schools and on to the transition to further and higher education, work or training. We need to consider a number of things if we are to do that properly.

First, I point out that education is not solely about employability; it is also about the rounded young person of the future. That said, the transition from school to work is an important stage in a young person's life and it should be supported by schools, colleges, employers and the wider community. As well as employability, education is about the opportunities that young people have. If they do not receive a correct and decent education, they will not be able to move on and make the transition when they reach the age of 16. That is where the problem lies.

We need to ask why young people are failing in the system. The Education Committee carried out an inquiry into pupil motivation and we have talked about the issues for three and a half years, but we have still not hit the nail on the head. If we are to ensure that all our young people get equal opportunities in education, we must do a number of things. Early intervention is one of the keys, and we need good support for learning in schools, with one-to-one support, if necessary, for literacy and numeracy. We need to reduce class sizes to no more than 20 and to no more than 15 for practical classes. Young people need a running commentary—they need someone to engage with them. Some of them come from homes where there is a lot of deprivation and they do not get opportunities, so it is down to schools to provide opportunities.

We also need to think about young people's learning styles. Young people are not all made to sit in a classroom for five hours a day. We need to train our teachers to be aware of young people's different learning styles so that we can accommodate their differences. I prefer to say that young people have learning differences rather than learning difficulties, and those differences can be overcome if we challenge young people in the correct manner and engage with them in the way that they require. That means thinking about their learning styles.

We need to offer young people the opportunity to achieve. A sense of achievement is motivation in itself because it builds self-esteem and confidence, but many of the young people we are talking about have low confidence and no self-esteem. We need to give them access in and out of school to sport, leisure activities, drama, the arts, music and so on. As people who can afford to provide those things for our children, we know that they make all the difference in their lives. It is important that our communities are involved so that we can give young people opportunities in and out of school. It is not good enough for us to rely on parents' having the money to pay for those things. Unfortunately, many young people from deprived areas do not have access and do not have the money, and some do not have the bus fare to go to the leisure centre even if they have a free pass to get in there. We have to equalise things and ensure that young people get opportunities that will allow them to thrive in our communities.

As I keep saying, I am bitterly disappointed that the integrated community school projects seemed to fizzle out instead of building on what was started and making it better, strengthening it and ensuring that communities came into education via integrated community schools from pre-school all the way through to secondary school. That was a key project that we could have developed more and with which we could have made a huge difference.

We need to allow children and young people access to the services that will support them when there are difficulties in their families. All too often, there are waiting lists for child and family mental health teams and for psychologists and other psychological services in education. Limited counselling services are available in our schools, but we need to wrap all the care around our young people—that is what this is all about. It is not good enough to set up little projects here and there and to hope that they will solve this massive problem. That will not work.

The Executive is giving itself a pat on the back today, but it has no right to do that. The number of 16 to 19-year-olds not in employment, education or training in Scotland is about 35,000—13.5 per cent of all 16 to 19-year-olds. That is a disgrace. I have looked at the figures for Ayrshire. In East Ayrshire, the figure is 16.6 per cent, which is higher than average. In North Ayrshire, it is higher than average at 18.6 per cent, and in South Ayrshire, it is higher than average at 18.5 per cent. In the Glasgow City Council area, the figure is 23 per cent. Many of those young people would welcome access to an apprenticeship, but if they live in North Ayrshire, for example, their chances are almost zero.

About a year ago I met people who run a skills centre and we talked about the number of young people who had applied for apprenticeships. Of the hundreds of young people who were interested, applications came in for more than 80. Only four were taken on, because only four employers were found who could take them on. What is the minister going to do to give those young people access to decent training courses? Many of them are very fit to go into apprenticeships and would be motivated at school if they thought that there was something at the end it.

It is extremely important that those young people get opportunities. Some of them are in second and third-generation unemployment. We need to do something about that and we need to ensure that they know that there are opportunities for their future and that they can move on. We need to encourage employers to ensure that they have the means through which to bring on young people. What are we doing to encourage small businesses, for example, to take on apprentices?

I will finish there. I just hope that the minister will answer some of my points.

I move amendment S2M-5098.2, to leave out from "welcomes" to end and insert:

"is concerned about the numbers of young people not in education, employment or training; recognises that there is a need to address the reasons why schools are failing these young people and to take immediate action to address these problems by reducing class sizes, offering a broader curriculum and engaging more with young people, their parents and their communities, and calls on the Scottish Executive to offer fully supported and resourced modern apprenticeships based on the needs of young people and communities."