The lack of opportunity for growing numbers of young people threatens Scotland's communities and her economy, Scottish Business in the Community (SBC) leader Jane Wood will tell the group's 30th anniversary dinner this week.
At the Edinburgh event which will be attended by SBC chairman Prince Charles, Ms Wood will appeal to the leaders of bigger companies to set new standards of corporate social responsibility (CSR) for the small businesses in their supply chains.
"It is the only way left," Ms Wood told The Herald. "There are 300,000 businesses in Scotland who employ under 250 people. If we don't engage them in the whole CSR thing, we are not going to create the capacity we need in Scotland to mitigate the employability problems we have."
After a big boost in membership after the financial crisis, SBC missed its member revenue targets last year but continues to win grants from the private sector and the Scottish Government. Ms Wood said SBC had made successful inroads into the hospitality and tourism sector by adapting its programmes to suit small businesses. "We have been blown away by how this sector has welcomed and taken on board the importance of this agenda as a business driver and some of these are two or three-man bands."
Edinburgh Airport has made a significant investment into the BAA Skills for Sustainable Tourism programme, in which SBC works with over 25 companies and organisations to run courses for school-leavers.
Prince Charles, who has chaired SBC for 27 years, will visit an Edinburgh school this week as part of his own UK-wide Seeing is Believing school visits programme which aims to "challenge, inspire and engage top business leaders" – at the rate of more than 10 a week in the past 22 years.
Ms Wood said: "Scotland is facing a growth in young people leaving school with no positive destination, this is a real threat to our communities and to our economy.
"This visit shows the work schools and business are doing to reduce this growing figure. We will talk directly to people addressing this issue, learn from successful projects, and gain an understanding of what more needs to be done and how businesses can help."
Ms Wood said Prince Charles might be seen as being "ahead of his time" in putting employability at the heart of many of his charities over the past three decades.
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