Call for business to have a direct role in schooling

Damien Yeates, chief executive of Skills Development Scotland, said the education system needs a "step-change" in work-based learning over the next five years as part of moves to tackle youth unemployment.

The call comes after a commission led by leading oil industrialist Sir Ian Wood concluded that Scotland was not preparing or equipping young people for the world of work.

Mr Yeates said: "If you take work-based leaning and add it to the rigorous academic practices that are already established in schools then you get an enriched outcome for pupils.

"If that is well-aligned to the needs of industry then what you are doing is driving a greater convergence between the requirements of business and the aspirations of pupils.

??To get this enrichment and enhancement in Scotland we want to ask whether there is potential in the senior school to introduce that experience alongside core subjects and grow substantially the connections between schools and industry, as well as colleges."

Only 29 per cent of employers currently recruit young people straight from education and only 13 per cent of employers take on apprentices. There are some 72,000 unemployed young people in Scotland.

At the same time, CBI Scotland has reported a number of areas where significant skills shortages are likely to appear over the next few years.

This includes a shortfall of more than 5,100 skilled employees to work in construction, 11,000 in ICT and similar levels of shortages in engineering.

Mr Yeates said there was a clear correlation between low levels of youth unemployment and high levels of work-based or vocational learning in secondary education across European countries.

In Switzerland, 64 per cent of young people who leave schools at 15 move into work-based learning and youth unemployment is just at eight per cent. The average OECD youth unemployment rate is 16 per cent.

Mr Yeates said: "There are those countries that have systems that are more work-based with the curriculum heavily influenced by industry and by the needs of industry and these tend to have much lower levels of youth unemployment.

"By changing the system here, as a minimum outcome you could enable young people to experience the world of work in a much more significant way and test out career pathways.

??The maximum outcome would be an enhanced progression in secondary school so that someone could go directly into the second year of an apprenticeship when they left school as a paid employee."

Under the proposals, pupils would acquire National Occupational Standards qualifications, which are required by industry.

Mr Yeates accepted that it would be "challenging" to sign up sufficient businesses to make the proposal a reality, but he said there were already 15,000 companies delivering modern apprenticeships to pupils after they leave school.

Garry Clarke, head of policy for the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, welcomed the move.

He said: "It does involve a higher level of commitment from business, but we would work with them to help them step up to the plate because for too long we have had a two-tier system with a focus on the academic and this could help redress that balance."

Andrew Palmer, CBI Scotland director, added: "We must expand access to high quality apprenticeships and other ??learn while you earn?? schemes and ensure that these meet the needs of both businesses and employees."

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), said industry-recognised qualifications being achieved by pupils in sixth form was now a well-recognised aim.

He added: "The crucial discussion is how you deliver it in real terms because it has to be resourced, there needs to be genuine parity of esteem with the academic route and we need to see businesses getting involved to make this happen."

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