Chamber and committees

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.

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 recognise a need to prioritise resources within the MA area. Given the continuing challenges within the labour market for young people, we have asked Skills Development Scotland (SDS) to maximise the number of 16 to 24-year-olds moving into employed apprenticeships. We expect SDS to continue to ensure the availability of a significant number of MA opportunities for young people aged 16 to 19, given that supporting post school transitions into the labour market is a priority.

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.

In December 2011, the Scottish Government announced it would support 1,000 of the most disadvantaged young people including; care leavers, ex-young offenders and young carers, to enter the labour market over the next three years. An Employer Recruitment Incentive of £1,500 is available for the year 2012-13 to support employers who have employed a disadvantaged young person.

In addition, each young person will receive additional employability support such as mentoring, job coaching, and personal organisation. This list is not exhaustive and support should and will be tailored to the young person’s needs.

It is the aim of the pilot programme being run in 2012-13 by the Scottish Chambers of Commerce to support 100 graduates into employment.

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.

Making Training Work Better allowed us to develop proposals that seek to reduce duplication of funding for episodes of training whilst focussing on the provision of skills development for young people and maximising support for the low paid low skilled and the unemployed across Scotland. The proposals are:

- Develop higher level Technical and Professional Apprenticeships to offer a wider range of entry and progression opportunities through the apprenticeship programme;

- Provide flexible support, including incentives to employers, to support 16 to 24-year-olds from disadvantaged groups such as care leavers and young carers into jobs, including Modern Apprenticeships;

- Support 20 to 24-year-old Modern Apprentices across all frameworks rather than for selected sectors;

- Develop a transparent process for developing new apprenticeship frameworks that focus on employer needs through Scotland’s Modern Apprenticeship Group;

- Enhance the work experience element of the Get Ready for Work programme;

- Explore the potential for an outcome-focused national employability fund that brings together funding from a range of sources to provide more coherent and flexible pre-employment support for young people and adults;

- Protect provision and access to pre-employment skills provision for adults by ensuring that all the funding used to train and support individuals is dispersed in most appropriate way;

- Maximise support for those moving towards and into work by better targeting Individual Learning Account funding, and

- Continue to provide support for small and micro employers with 100 employees or less through Flexible Training Opportunities.

The Scottish Government is working with Skills Development Scotland and other partners to improve the quality and use of data on 16 to 19-year-olds in order to support the delivery of Opportunities for All.

We are investing £10.5 million in the next three years to support local partnerships to deliver activity agreements. Broken down as follows:

2012-13 - £4 million,

2013-14 - £3.5 million and

2014-15 - £3 million.

A dedicated National Development Manager is providing additional support directly to partnerships.