Chamber and committees

This is Scotland.

Ach, naw—yer aw right. [Laughter.]

Maybe not, George.

For every single job I have just listed, there is a modern apprenticeship in Scotland that will qualify someone to do it. If there is a need for skills, there will be jobs for the folk who have those skills. I realise that just signposting young folk to pathways is not all that we need to do, although that always helps. We must also ensure that enough of those modern apprenticeships are available. That means not just having enough numbers across the country, although 150,000 apprentices during the five years of this parliamentary session is an affa big and affa nice number. We must ensure that those apprenticeships are available in the places where there is both demand from willing learners and demand for those skills.

As a member for Aberdeen, I represent Europe’s capital of energy excellence. Yes, that is my new slogan for the city and, yes, I am going to mention it in almost every single speech that I give here. One of the great things that we have in Europe’s capital of energy excellence is a brand-new energy transition skills hub, which our First Minister opened last summer. That hub is now part of the NESCol estate and supports its amazing work to train our region’s young workforce. Every time I meet staff from NESCol, they highlight that they would love to do more and have the capacity to do so. I thought that it might be helpful to share that, and it is a hint for the minister, in case he didna realise that.

To sum up, I want to see Aberdeen strengthen its position as Europe’s capital of energy excellence and I want to see economic prosperity for Scotland’s future generations. I want our young folk to have the best chance in life and to be offered the tools that they need to succeed, and I want those young folk to feel, whatever path that they choose when they leave school, that the sky is the limit.

16:49

I think that I might raise some eyebrows with how I start my speech today, because I am about to say something nice about a Tory.

When I first joined the Scottish National Party and began to get involved in politics, the first big campaign for me was the 1992 general election—which makes me feel a bit old after what Jack Middleton just said. I can still remember the billboards that read, “What does the Conservative Party offer a working-class kid from Brixton? They made him Prime Minister”, alongside a picture of John Major. I will be honest: as a working-class quine brought up on farms in the north-east, I respected that. Do not get me wrong: I disagreed with his politics and still do, and I voted for the SNP candidate Jim McGuigan, but what John Major achieved sends a message about what working-class bairns can aspire to and about how far someone can get in life without a degree.

As someone who did not go to university—one of a minority in the Parliament—I want to talk about that today. University is not for everyone. We are blessed to have world-leading universities that are available to everyone, but that does not mean that university is right and best for everyone, or that the best time to go there is right after leaving school.

I want to see a Scotland where someone can work as a builder, a plumber, a carer or, as in my case, in a supermarket and still feel that the sky is the limit for their career. If we cannot get that message through, we are in trouble as a nation, because we need folk to do the wide range of jobs that are highly skilled but do not require a degree. If I look across the north-east, I see a massive demand for the sort of skills that people cannot get at university. I have been to briefings about the energy transition zone and have heard about the pressing need for welders. I also cannot emphasise enough how much demand there is for roofers. For example, at one point during the previous session of Parliament, Audrey Nicoll, Kevin Stewart, Kirsty Blackman, Stephen Flynn and I all had water coming in through our office ceilings at the same time. Roofers were like gold dust.

If we are going to build a better Scotland, Scotland needs builders, plumbers, carpenters and sparkies. If we are going to be a caring Scotland, we need carers, healthcare support staff and folk who work in social services. If the nation that gave the world economics is going to have economic prosperity, we need engineers, fabricators, managers and administrators. I do not know about the Deputy Presiding Officer, but, personally, I need my hairdresser. I know that folk think that this is my natural hair colour—

Will the member give way?

It is racist.

Follow that.

I cannot believe that Ms Mackay has said that Stephen Kerr is the most popular at the moment. She is talking about Scotland rejoining the EU. Does she believe that we should be independent before we do that, or should we rejoin the EU before we become independent? Does she agree with the popular, sensible Mr Stephen Kerr that a generation is 10 years?

Will the member take an intervention?

This is a genuine question, which Murdo Fraser did not answer earlier. How long should the consultation be for if three months is not long enough? That is not a party-political question; it is a genuine question.