Perhaps it was because the figures were so shocking that Finance Secretary John Swinney accused me of making them up.

We tell ourselves that we know the extent and effects of unemployment and lack of opportunities but, when these figures hit us in the face, as they did in the case of Mr Swinney last week, perhaps a natural reaction is to think they are not true.

But true they are. A total of 818 young people who applied to study engineering at Dundee and Angus College this autumn couldn't secure a place. In all, 1,179 students applied to study engineering; 361 were given a place and 818 were left without.

Why is engineering significant? It is a snapshot of our economic challenge in Scotland.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) reported last week that the UK needs an additional 87,000 engineering graduates by 2020. Engineering and the knowledge economy remain a massive opportunity for our economy and our young people; which takes me back to Dundee.

Dundee is a city with a proud engineering history, what with Timex watches and Spectrum computers. NCR designed and made ATMs here.

Their leading engineers still operate from Dundee. There are good jobs for engineers in our communities. GA Engineering in Dundee employs scores of young people making parts for the oil and gas industry.

These are the jobs that college graduates could train for but there are not enough places to fill the demand from applicants or the demands of industry.

If the skills gap is as large as the IPPR has said, why can we not strategically invest in the skills and courses that the economy needs?

If the experts tell us that there will be jobs for engineering or IT graduates, should more places and more funding not become available to let young people train?

If these courses are more likely to lead to jobs, are these not the courses we should be multiplying? So why were there only 361 engineering places when this is such a priority for the economy and there could be jobs at the other end? Money is the answer.

This provides another snapshot of the lack of strategic thinking at Government level. The reality is that the college sector has never been a priority for the SNP.

They have denied it the funds required since coming to power in 2007 and have failed to see that colleges are the powerhouses for good jobs in communities where companies want to be based.

Anyone scanning the college engineering places will see an array of skills for oil and gas, welding, hydraulics, renewable energy and mechanics.

Young people in my community want these jobs. Clearly industry need the graduates.

This summer, I visited another youth employment project in Dundee. I spoke to a young man who had not long left the same school I attended in the city.

He had applied for a course in engineering at Dundee and Angus college but hadn't secured a place. He had the qualifications.

He was sitting studying his CV, trying to make improvements. I asked him what he would do until it was time for him to apply next year. He looked unsure. He just wanted to start college.

I would like Mr Swinney to go to that project and tell the young people there that he will make colleges a priority in his budget as it goes through Parliament.

And that he will look strategically at how we can match training investment to the skills needs of our economy and the employment needs of young people.

Also, that he and the SNP will take colleges more seriously, by considering them the powerhouses for modern industry and the most important places to solve youth unemployment.

I believe that,if the SNP start to give colleges the central place in our economy that its own Wood Commission recommended this year, fewer young people will be looking disconsolately at their CVs.