Chamber and committees

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.

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 this year to support employers who have employed a disadvantaged young person. The incentive will be subject to continuous evaluation and improvement measures throughout the three years that this incentive is available.

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 this year to support employers who have employed a disadvantaged young person. The incentive will be subject to continuous evaluation and improvement measures throughout the three years that this incentive is available.

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.

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.

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.

The £18 million available in 2012-13 now fully committed, and I am currently consulting on the best use of the remainder of the £30 million available over 2013-15, taking account of the impacts of this year’s investment.

I continue to take every available opportunity to widen the discussion beyond this additional funding and to consider how our investment across learning, economic development and local government can be aligned with the youth employment agenda.