Young take part in work aid summit

Dec 5 2012

Young people have met leading politicians to discuss how they can be supported into work.

Youth Employment Minister Angela Constance was joined by five other ministers at a jobs summit in Edinburgh, attended by about 120 people aged 16 to 24.

Ms Constance said: "Hearing the experiences of young people directly is vital to our work to support them and their peers into work.

"This Government is doing more than any other to improve the employability of our young people. We are already committed to 25,000 modern apprenticeship opportunities in every year of this Parliament and have guaranteed every 16 to 19-year-old a place in education or training."

Ms Constance also welcomed new youth guarantee proposals announced by the European Commission, which set out that EU countries should make sure no unemployed under-25 goes more than four months without the offer of a job, continued education, an apprenticeship or traineeship.

"While employment services in Scotland are the responsibility of Westminster, we are not able to mobilise these resources in the way that countries like Austria and Finland can, and I plan to seek a meeting with the UK Government Ministers in the new year to discuss the commission's proposals and how they could be implemented in Scotland."

She was joined at the event by Education Secretary Michael Russell, Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop, Learning Minister Alasdair Allan, Children's Minister Aileen Campbell and Sport Minister Shona Robison.