A task vital to the country’s economic future is taking place this week the promotion of apprenticeships.
On-the-job training for skills has for too long been overshadowed by university degrees as a route to career fulfilment for our young people.
Everyone has the right to achieve their academic potential, but is university the right destination for all who go there?
Is it also in the best interests of our economy for so many people to study for degrees?
Are universities delivering the nature and number of able young people that our country actually needs?
Regular reports of a skills shortage suggests they are not, and that must call into question successive Governments’ championing of universities as the pathway to economic success.
Take the construction industry.
Its training board has predicted a major boost from housebuilding through to 2020.
It has warned, however, that Scotland will need more than 21,000 new construction workers to meet that demand and deliver the economic boost that should result.
This raises the important question of whether we are making the most of the talents of our young people?
About 40% of Scottish school leavers go on to higher education, 26% to further education, 4% into training and 22% find employment.
But what happens after that? Well, in large parts of the country things don’t work out very well.
Dundee has the lowest employment rate of all of Scotland’s 32 local authorities and an above-average number of people claiming out-of-work benefits.
Its economic problems are plain to see although it is trying to address them through projects like the waterfront development and port infrastructure investment.
So what do more economically successful countries do that we don’t?
The German economy is the largest in Europe, its growth outperforms other eurozone economies and it has Europe’s lowest rate of youth unemployment.
It also has a big and well-promoted apprenticeship system, which allows young Germans who don’t go to university to train and qualify in companies.
The training lasts three-and-a-half years and apprentices are paid for their efforts. More than half of young Germans go down this route and secure real jobs for their and their country’s benefit.
Isn’t this a German lesson from which we in Scotland should learn?
So it is good that attention is being shone on the value of on-the-job training for employment with Scottish Apprenticeship Week.
John McClelland, chairman of Skills Development Scotland, said: “Apprenticeships mean businesses can find the talent they need for the growth they want.”
Cabinet Secretary Roseanna Cunningham couldn’t have put it better by declaring: “It is crucial that we continue to invest, not only in our young people by making sure that they have the right opportunities to learn and develop their skills and gain access to the labour market, but also to support industry and business right across Scotland.”
She announced a new Scottish Government target of 26,000 Modern Apprenticeships next year, 1,000 more than this year, towards a goal of 30,000 a year by 2020.
Let’s hope these targets can be achieved. Let us value apprenticeships.