Letter: Focus on skills

A DRIVE to create 100,000 additional apprenticeship places by 2014, announced by Business Secretary Vince Cable, is to be commended. Employers are keen to see a much greater focus on creating and supporting work-based training opportunities to help ensure that, on leaving school, young people develop the skills most needed in the workplace.

With this in mind, one of the five key pledges set out in the 2011 Scottish election manifesto launched by the Alliance of Sector Skills Councils in Scotland is to increase participation in, and widen access to, apprenticeships, vocational training and work-based learning opportunities.

A consistent focus on apprenticeships will help to ensure the skills system is more responsive to employers' needs. It will also ensure the skills young people are developing are better matched to the evolving opportunities employers have to offer them.

JACQUI HEPBURN

Director, Alliance of Sector Skills Councils in Scotland

Castle Street, Edinburgh