Chamber and committees

As part of the all Government, all Scotland approach to tackling youth employment, all Scottish Government Directorates will consider how best they can support the Scottish Government’s commitment to helping young people into employment on an ongoing basis. The Scottish Government will remain in dialogue with its agencies about development of their youth employment plans.

The Scottish Chambers of Commerce put forward a proposal for a pilot scheme to support graduate recruitment and business growth. The Scottish Chambers of Commerce considered areas with high rates of unemployed young people aged 18 to 24 and areas in which they are well placed to immediately support delivery of the pilot.

The Annual Population Survey (APS) is the preferred source of detailed data on young unemployed people.

The latest APS data available is for April 2011 to March 2012. This data shows that there were 4,500 people aged 16 to 18 who were not in full-time education and had been unemployed for over year. It is not possible to provide data broken down by local authority area due to the underlying sample sizes.

As part of the all government, all Scotland approach to tackling youth employment, all areas of the Scottish Government and its agencies will continue to consider how best they can support Scottish Government objectives of helping young people into employment on an ongoing basis.

An action forum on youth employment was held in Dumfries on 21 June. Those invited included local employers, young people, training providers, politicians and representatives of public, private and third sector organisations. Invitations to the event in Oban, being planned for September, will cover a similar list.

The Scottish Government is currently exploring the potential for an outcome-focused national employability fund. Initial consultation with stakeholders was undertaken in Putting Learners at the Centre and as part of the Employability Framework refresh currently being prepared for publication later this year.

As part of the all Government, all Scotland approach to tackling youth employment, all Cabinet Secretaries will consider how best they can each support Scottish Government objectives of helping young people into employment within their areas of responsibility on an ongoing basis.

We will seek to invite a wide range of appropriate stakeholders.

As part of the all government, all Scotland approach to tackling youth employment, all Cabinet Secretaries will consider how best they can each support Scottish Government objectives of helping young people into employment within their areas of responsibility on an ongoing basis.