1000 modern apprentices redundant

Jul 3 2009 by Lex Brown, Irvine Herald

AN MSP is backing calls for action on jobs for young people as it emerged that more than 1000 on the Modern Apprentice Scheme have been made redundant.

Cunninghame South MSP Irene Oldfather has expressed concern that the figures are creeping up with 20 youngsters in North Ayrshire having lost their jobs.

Hardest hit are the 24 who were on construction schemes and now find themselves out of work.

The figures reveals more than half the total number of apprentices in North Ayrshire have either been made redundant, are looking for alternative employment or have left the programme altogether.

Mrs Oldfather wants the Scottish Government to intervene to help young people who have been hit directly by the global economic crisis.

She is supporting a call from Labour’s Scottish Government leader Iain Gray for a National Conversation on Jobs with the creation of an Industrial Strategy for Scotland.

The new body would prepare Scotland for the next job market, including green jobs, and employment in manufacturing and the service industry.

This week Mrs Oldfather said it was clear the recession was hitting North Ayrshire hard. She said the rise in employment would take some time to drop, even to least year’s levels.

She said: “Finding work is difficult at the moment, and I suspect many want to get back on the employment ladder.

“That is why the Government should be engaging with people at all levels and thinking about what the future job market will look like.

“I have said in the past that green technologies will be as important to the next generation as the internet was to people in the 1990s.

Mrs Oldfather went on: “North Ayrshire is well placed to gain advantage in the green energy sector.

“As a nation we should be thinking about how to invest in these new sectors.”