Demand for more support for apprentices

21 April 2010

Highlands and Islands Labour MSP Rhoda Grant has demanded that the Scottish Government provide more support for apprentices after it was revealed that across Scotland 855 apprentices were made redundant in the past year.

According to Skills Development Scotland, 720 of these – including 52 from the Highlands, 12 in Argyll and Bute, 10 in Western Isles, eight in Shetland, five in Moray and 3 in Orkney - were in the construction industry.

Labour will be using a Holyrood debate on Thursday (April 22) to highlight the problems being experienced by the construction industry and call on ministers to give every young person the right to quality training.

Rhoda Grant, who is hoping to speak at the debate, said: "This is an opportunity for us to speak up for our young people.

"I am deeply concerned that 90 apprentices from the construction trades in the Highlands and Islands have lost their jobs in the past year.

"These young people are being deprived of the opportunity to train for the future in an industry that needs their skills."

She added: "The SNP bear a heavy responsibility for this because they have turned off the tap of public sector investment and made the recession worse than it would otherwise have been.

"Skilled workers have been put out of work and families forced to struggle with smaller pay packets, or none at all, because the Scottish Government’s Futures Trust is not fit for purpose.

"Labour believes that every young person should have the right to quality training.

"This debate is an opportunity for us to speak up for our young people and push the SNP to get Scotland building again."

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