Gerard Eadie on apprentices

Having begun my career as a 16-year-old glazing apprentice, I have long believed there are few better ways to getting young people into the mindset of work. Trade apprenticeships, in particular, provide skills training that can set you up for life and teach the disciplines needed for a successful career, whatever path in life one takes.

For me, therefore, the current enthusiasm for modern apprenticeships and in-house training is to be applauded. In just over a week, we have heard Gordon Brown's plans for in-house diplomas alongside his "unprecedented expansion in apprenticeships". The SNP budget allows for more apprenticeships, and Wendy Alexander has called for a bill that will "put Scotland's skills at the heart of the political agenda". Such aspiration cannot be faulted.

The UK has six million unskilled workers. Scotland has 35,000 not in employment, education or training. The Prince's Trust in Scotland deals with around 4000 young people a year who are excluded either from school or from a normal working life. This is a massive waste of potential and provides plenty of evidence of what is undermining our social and economic prosperity. Therefore, the sooner we have a valuable workforce and not a skills gap the better.

But I, for one, also need reassurance. By highlighting big organisations such as McDonald's and Flybe, Brown may be able to deliver the numbers he is looking for, but in Scotland, where the economy is driven by small to medium-sized entrepreneurial companies, this doesn't sit so comfortably.

We need skills training that will ultimately provide people with the kind of wage that supports a family. We need training programmes focused on sustainable long-term employment. The danger is that what we will get is training that keeps young people tied to low-paid, semi-skilled work.

And where is the skills focus? Let's ensure that the skills we develop will contribute to economic growth. Should we be turning our attention to more managers for fast-food restaurants when what we need is more engineers, mechanics and craftspeople capable of building quality products and constructing the infrastructure of a strong and ambitious nation?

How will these schemes be implemented? To employ an apprentice joiner costs a company around £15,000 over the first two years of a four-year apprenticeship. The cost per head for a company the size of a Network Rail bears no resemblance to a small roofing contractor with 12 staff on the payroll. Yet the opportunities for apprentices in smaller organisations should be no less.

I am convinced that better government support for employers would see more businesses taking on apprentices. This is not about hand-outs, nor diverting funds from colleges, which receive support for the classroom element of any apprenticeship. It would show that government understands the business realities for all types of employer, and would demonstrate a serious commitment to motivate, train and provide everyone with a sustainable future.

Work-based training is the way forward: it puts jobs first. Programmes such as traditional apprenticeships, which provide a combination of practical and classroom teaching while young people learn what it really means to be in the world of work, are vital. I would even go as far as to say that in-work training should be a mandatory part of everyone's first job with an organisation.

The current mood for developing skills in our young people is fantastic, but let's get the detail right.

Gerard Eadie is chairman of CR Smith Ltd and vice-chairman of The Prince's Trust Scotland