Letter: Job doubts

All the political parties have recognised the need to put jobs for young people high up on the agenda. Youth unemployment stats released last month show the numbers rising and there is widespread fear that a generation could be lost to under-achievement and poverty. But can we believe their manifesto promises?

The report from Glasgow University's Centre for Public Policy for Regions is a shot across the bows for all the parties to come clean with voters (your report, 21 April). The academics can't make the numbers stack up and the politicians are loath to give any sort of detail behind their grand statements.

Where the future of our young people is concerned I would like to see all politicians explain exactly how their plans are going to work as a matter of urgency.

Speaking as an employer, I would like to understand where the jobs for all the apprenticeships promised are going to be found? How additional training is going to lead to real jobs? And how funds are to be used to support employers and students?

Voters should be given detail, not headline-grabbing numbers.

GERARD EADIE CBE

Chairman, CR Smith

Gardeners Street

Dunfermline