Youngsters leaving school ‘lack basic skills for the workplace’

A “YAWNING gulf” has opened up between the way schools prepare youngsters for the workplace and the “reality” of having a job, business leaders have warned.

MSPs have also accused Scotland’s national training body of “smoke and mirrors” over its claims of success in getting youngsters off the dole at a time of record youth unemployment.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said schools and employers must work more closely to ensure young people have the skills they need for work. Some 103,000 people aged 16 to 24 are out of work in Scotland and opposition parties warn of a “lost generation”.

FSB in Scotland senior policy adviser Mary Goodman told Holyrood’s education committee yesterday that a change of approach was needed. “I think one of the reasons why we have this stand-off here is because of the yawning gulf between education and employment.

“Policymakers are constantly suggesting ways of addressing issues in education and employment that just disregard what the reality is out there.”

She said the national Employer Skills Survey had consistently corroborated anecdotal evidence about a lack of “soft skills” among young people strating work, including communication and interpersonal skills, team building and problem solving. But Scottish Trades Union Council assistant secretary Stephen Boyd said research had shown that employers who do take on young people have an “extremely positive” experience, and that the problem was being “exaggerated”.

Labour MSP Neil Findlay raised concerns over evidence from national training body Skills Development Scotland that 80-90 per cent of young people it deals with end up in “positive destinations”. He said: “And yet 30 per cent of young people living in my area are unemployed. The more I look at this …the more smoke and mirrors I find.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We are committed to 25,000 modern apprenticeship opportunities and have announced an additional £30 million to back up our guarantee of a place in education or training for every 16 to 19-year-old.”