Chamber and committees

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.

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.

Yes. DWP officials in Scotland discussed and commented on the draft Strategy. This included discussions on the Youth Contract.

Skills Development Scotland has spoken to a range of employers and employer-facing groups through the process of developing the certificate of work readiness. Skills Development Scotland is also in the process of establishing an external stakeholder group, which will have employers involved to steer the development of the certificate as it is rolled out.

In support of Opportunities for All, we anticipate that Youth Employment Action Plans for all local authority areas to be in place by the end of the autumn. For most areas this will be a first version and plans will be updated on a regular basis.

The documents will be available on request, subject to local authority agreement. However, the contents will change on a regular basis in light of progress and local priority.

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 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.

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.

Activity agreements are offered on the basis of an assessment of a young person’s needs. Local partnerships engage with all young people to ensure they continue to participate in learning upon leaving school. This includes considering whether activity agreements would be the correct option for them. Therefore, specific targets on the number delivered in each area are not set in advance.