TODAY marks the first ever international World Skills Day – which has the aim to reduce unemployment and underemployment among young people across the world. This is an ambition that is shared by the Scottish Government with our commitment to reduce 2014 levels of youth unemployment by 40 per cent by 2021.
We are doing all we can to make Scotland on of the best places in Europe when it comes to youth employment. Our strategy details our plan to equip our young people with the skills and knowledge they need from the early years right through to the senior phase and into an apprenticeship, further and higher education, and a job.
We will also use new powers to provide young people aged 16 to 24 who have been unemployed for six months or more with a jobs grant to help them with the costs of getting into or back into work.
As a country we know that we can do better if we can benefit from the skills, talents and innovation of all our young people.
This is why earlier this year we introduced five Developing Young Workforce regional groups across the country to support young people into jobs. Having local business leaders engaged and willing to help shape education and training to meet their own needs and the needs of local young people, creates invaluable opportunities for youth to flourish through gaining employment and learning new skills. By linking schools, colleges and employers to address local employment gaps, the groups will help drive youth employment figures up locally and nationally.
In Scotland, we take the importance of ensuring that our young people have the right skills very seriously. We have consistently surpassed our annual Modern Apprenticeships targets with over 25,500 starts in 2015-16. But we know we have more to do which is why we have ambitious target to increase this to 30,000 by 2020.
We have heard from firms that apprentices are a crucial element to their business, bringing fresh ideas and new ways of working to the teams they join. Many young people quickly move into management roles having taken advantage of development opportunities during their apprenticeship.
The latest employment figures show that youth unemployment has decreased over the last year. We know there is an abundance of talented young people across the country and I would urge you all to get involved in the first ever World Youth Skills Day by using the followings hashtags #wysd #PowerOfSkills to showcase your skills and how you are contributing to Scotland’s economy.
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