Scottish Skills Summit

Skills: Scotland's Opportunity is the Scottish Government's Skills and Training Summit being held on April, 27 at Surgeon's Hall in Edinburgh. It will be attended by around 120 representatives from the public, private and voluntary sectors.

The summit saw the announcement that businesses have already signed up to employ more than 7,000 modern apprentices in the coming year.  The bookings taken by Skills Development Scotland will allow more than 7,000 young people and adults to start an apprenticeship this month.

The news follows last week's announcement to extend both the Adopt and Safeguard an Apprentice schemes.

Skills Minister Keith Brown said:

"Today's summit is about bringing those who can help create, support and safeguard jobs together to discuss the best way forward during the next year and beyond.

"The Scottish Government's Skills Strategy and Economic Recovery Plan has been critical in supporting Scotland's emergence from recession, however, we still have a long way to go.

"Following last year's Apprenticeship Summit we were quick to put incentives in place to support businesses. That is why last year we exceeded our target and secured 20,000 modern apprenticeships; supported 15,000 jobs through our economic recovery plan and brought forward £350 million capital investment.

"Looking ahead to this year, we have around 35,000 training opportunities to support business. The fact that already 7,000 modern apprenticeship places have been secured by business shows that we are listening to employers' needs and responding to their demands.

"Our next step will be to publish a refreshed skills strategy with a renewed focus on the skills needed to support a strong recovery for Scotland with the longer-term aim of sustainable economic growth."

On March 17, 2010 the First Minister announced that around 20,000 people in Scotland had started a Modern Apprenticeship in the past year - exceeding the Scottish Government's target of 18,500.