Hunter: SE should give £100m to charity

Published on Sunday 14 January 2007 00:06

BUSINESSMAN and philanthropist Sir Tom Hunter has said £100m of the money distributed by Scottish Enterprise should be given to a charity run by Prince Charles to help young people start their own firms.

Writing in today's Scotland on Sunday, he said a fifth of the business quango's budget would be better spent by the Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust. He said the trust was "arguably the most efficient business-builder in the world so let's park 100m of Scottish Enterprise's annual budget there".

Scotland's richest man also calls for 20% of the Executive's education budget to be given to private-sector specialists who could get children bored with school into training and employment. And he says university staff should be funded according to the quality of their teaching rather than by how many research papers they produce.

Writing in advance of May's Scottish elections, Hunter that, with its potential, Scotland was capable of overhauling other countries and economies.

He said: "I'm proud ... that we Scots led the world during the Enlightenment. I also believe we can lead a new enlightenment. To do so, we will need to be bold, belligerent and ballsy ... an invigorated, dynamic public and private sector can see us lead, not follow, other nations."

Hunter warned that the biggest threat to Scotland was the thousands of school-leavers who never went into training, employment, or education. He said: "Unless we address this, 12,000 to 15,000 children will be confined to a lifetime of unemployment every year."

He said allowing private specialists to educate those "bored rigid" with school "would deliver for those kids".