SALMOND ASKED TO BACK JOBS DRIVE

First Minister Alex Salmond was urged to "put his pride aside" and join forces with the UK Government to tackle youth unemployment.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said Holyrood and Westminster needed to work together as he made the plea to the Nationalist leader.

Mr Clegg says Westminster and Holyrood Parliaments should work closer together.

Mr Clegg was in Scotland to promote the UK Government's £1 billion scheme to deal with the problem.

But he said the SNP administration had initially dismissed the Youth Contract, which aims to find at least 410,000 work places for 18 to 24-year-olds across the UK, with wage subsidies worth £2,275 handed to employers to take on 160,000 young people.

The DPM say that Scotland's First Minister should "put his pride aside"

The initiative, which gets under way in April, will also create additional work experience places while £50 million will be spent on helping 16 and 17-year olds into training.

The Government says the programme will see £100 million of benefit to Scotland, £18 million of which will go to the Scottish Government over three years.

Mr Clegg, meeting apprentices at double-glazing firm CR Smith's Dunfermline headquarters, said the initiative "provides hope, which is the most precious thing of all, to young people at the moment who are unemployed".

But he said that when the scheme was announced in November, the SNP's initial reaction had been a "very breezy dismissal".

He added: "I thought it was a very cavalier, careless immediate response to something which is really serious - I can't think of anything more serious than the future of our young people in Scotland and elsewhere."

But he said since then the Scottish Government had appointed Angela Constance to the new role of youth employment minister, and he now believed there had been "some indications that Scotland will play its part and put up its side of the bargain to make sure the youth contract works in Scotland just as well as it does in other parts of the UK".

The Liberal Democrat leader stressed: "It's very important we work in full co-operation with the Scottish Government.

"I know Alex Salmond and the SNP were very dismissive when it was first announced, I hope they have now looked at the details a bit more and are prepared to work with us co-operatively.

"I know Alex Salmond never likes to give credit for good ideas which are not his own, but I think it would be a good thing for the young people of Scotland if he could put his pride aside and work with us to give those opportunities, from April, to every single young person in Scotland who, at the moment, is sitting at home feeling a bit lost, a bit cut off, feeling demoralised, just at the time in their life when they should be full of optimism and hope."

CR Smith chairman Gerard Eadie hailed the Youth Contract as a "welcome step forward".

Mr Eadie says Youth contracts are a "welcome step forward"

Mr Eadie said: "It is the first initiative to truly recognise that it is employers that create jobs, not colleges or even government."

He recalled that as a 16-year-old school leaver he had started his career with an apprenticeship and added: "By the time I was 20 it had also given me my entry into business and means to start my own company. I've never doubted the good that it did me."

Mr Eadie argued apprenticeships were "crucial for future growth". He added: "We need a new army of tradesmen to help us out of our current stagnant economy."

A spokesman for the First Minister said: "The Deputy Prime Minister is entirely wrong - as the First Minister has made clear on several occasions, the Scottish Government is fully committed to working with Westminster to tackle youth unemployment in Scotland.

"While youth employment is higher in Scotland than the rest of the UK - 61.9% compared to 57.8% - and a third of unemployed young Scots are also in full-time education, youth unemployment in Scotland is a hugely serious problem.

"We announced the appointment of Scotland's first dedicated minister for youth employment last year - the only such government position in any of the UK administrations - backed up with £30 million of new resources, which represents an additional £12 million on top of the £18 million Barnett consequentials from Westminster.

"This is in addition to our existing initiatives - such as the 'Opportunities for All' programme to guarantee a training or learning place to all 16-19 year-olds, and the record 25,000 Modern Apprenticeship places being provided in each year of this parliament."



PA 2012