THIS is the Year of Young People and, in 2018 more than ever, we are celebrating the achievements of our young people and trying to give them the tools to succeed in life.
There is no doubt Scotland is blessed with some incredibly talented youngsters with vast potential to make their mark in the world.
As a society we have to work to help them fulfil that potential, opening up opportunities for young people all the way from nursery to early adulthood.
We want to break down barriers for them, not build new ones.
Thanks to the EU’s founding principle of freedom of movement, travel and working in Europe has been made much more accessible.
Given that many young people are keen to travel, work and learn about different ways of life and culture, it’s no real surprise that an estimated 70 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds voted Remain in the 2016 Brexit Referendum.
The Scottish Government’s impact studies released yesterday show that Scotland’s economy will be an estimated £12.7 billion a year worse off under a hard Brexit.
The damage to the economy and the loss of vital funding streams are issues that were vastly underplayed by Leave campaigners in the build-up to the Referendum but the impact on rural constituencies like mine in Angus North and Mearns and young people, in particular, will be stark.
The loss of freedom of movement is a major blow as is the anticipated loss of programmes such as Erasmus+ which focuses largely on opening up opportunities for our young people.
Since 2014, this fund has been worth €60 billion (£53.4 million) to Scotland and has been spent across 700 diverse projects to fund travel, language exchange and training programmes — benefitting nurseries, schools, higher education, adult education, youth organisations and football clubs.
Last year alone, close to €21 million (almost £19 million) was awarded to Scotland.
Between 2014 and 2016, 11,168 pupils, students and young people were given the opportunity to broaden their horizons by travelling abroad on foreign language training and foreign exchange programmes thanks to Erasmus+.
Some 550 schools, including seven from my own constituency, were given opportunities to grow their foreign language and culture skills through the programme.
Universities across Scotland — including Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee — have all benefitted enormously and the foreign exchange experience they are able to offer students through the Erasmus+ programme goes much further afield than Europe.
Students from Scotland have had the chance to experience Brazil, Chile, China, India, Kazakhstan, Malawi, Malaysia, Mexico, Palestine, South Africa and Thailand. Football clubs have also funded foreign training camps for their youth teams with SPL champions Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Hearts, St Johnstone, Ross County, Patrick Thistle, Dundee United, St Mirren, Morton, Queen’s Park and League Two side Cowdenbeath all receiving funding from Erasmus+.
But with the dark clouds of Brexit looming, where do we go from here? At the Europe committee I sit on at the Scottish Parliament we took evidence last week from some of the beneficiaries of the programme. We heard from YouthLink Scotland who are coordinating the ‘Keep Erasmus+’ campaign asking that the UK Government commits to maintaining full access to the scheme.
We heard from others who told us of the impact that would be felt on their organisations and the young people they represent if they were no longer members of Erasmus.
From business students learning from fellow students in France to trainee mechanics sharing techniques with peers in Sweden, without involvement in Erasmus+ post-Brexit none of these opportunities would exist.
So will the Prime Minister mark the Year of Young People by committing to invest in them through Erasmus+ or will their opportunities to travel, work and experience life abroad be yet another casualty of her hard Brexit?
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