THE First Minister has slammed the Tories for their lack of policies during Ruth Davidson’s return to FMQs.
The Scottish Conservative leader asked Nicola Sturgeon if she accepted what she describes as a "positive destination" for young people when they leave school, may in fact be no such thing.
Davidson said: "Under this SNP government, the proportion of pupils leaving school with no qualifications whatsoever is at the highest level since 2011 and many others are leaving at 16 without going on to get the skills and education they need to thrive in the modern world."
Sturgeon responded, saying that 95% of those who leave school are, after three months of leaving, in work, training or study. The First Minister added that the Government would continue to pursue policies which help young people to leave school with qualifications, go into work, training or further study.
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She said: "I'm sorry to disagree with Ruth Davidson, but I don't consider a young person in further education or in higher education, or doing a modern apprenticeship as not doing something positive and meaningful."
The Scottish Tory leader proposed skills-participation age of 18, which has been used successfully in Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands.
“This is a serious proposal,” she said, “and there is no reason why it can’t command cross-party support.”
Davidson said that education and training, a devolved power, can be tackled in Holyrood. She said: “So I ask the First Minister, does she accept the need for change now, and when it comes to a skills participation age of 18, will she today give a commitment to act now?”
The FM fired back: “We will continue to take forward the policies in our schools, the policies on modern apprenticeships, the policies on foundation apprenticeships, the places at further education, investments in free higher education, which will always remain with the SNP."
The problem with the Tory analysis, she said, was that it isn’t borne out by the results young Scots are achieving.
“I would simply say to Ruth Davidson that, if this idea is such a great one, why didn’t she bother mentioning it in this leaflet to every voter across the country?” as she produced a copy of the leaflet. “Where she managed to mention independence 15 times, she managed to mention me 12 times – thank you very much for the free publicity – but not a single idea, not a single policy, because actually, the Tories don’t have any.”
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