Minister hails scheme for helping 600 apprentices

A SCHEME which encourages firms to take on apprentices who lost their training place has helped keep 600 young people in work over the last year.

The Adopt an Apprentice scheme provides a 2,000 incentive for employers to take on young apprentices made redundant because of the economic downturn.

Around 500 employers have so far taken part in the programme delivered by Skills Development Scotland, according to the Government.

The figures were revealed as skills minister Keith Brown met Ian Ramsey, a young apprentice "adopted" through the scheme.

He has since been able to work toward a modern apprenticeship qualification in carpentry and joinery, and showed the minister around the Ballina construction site in Edinburgh.

Mr Brown said: "Ian is just one of hundreds of success stories of young apprentices being saved from unemployment and taken on by a company through the incentivised Adopt an Apprenticeship scheme.

"The apprenticeship programme continues to play a key role in ensuring that we have the skills and capacity to support and grow the Scottish economy now and in the future."