Skills boost for youth

More than 3,500 extra newstarts will help boost the economy and give young people a foot up, training bosses said.

Paisley- based Ski l l s Development Scotland ( SDS), will support the delivery of 2,600 foundation apprenticeships for young people at school in 2018.

And funding will be made available to create almost 900 graduate apprenticeship opportunities.

This is in addition to 28,000 modern apprenticeship places, which will be delivered in the coming year.

Employability minister Jamie Hepburn said: “This government has substantially increased the number of new apprenticeships in Scotland from around 10,500 in 2008 to 28,000 in 2018-19, and we remain on track to achieve 30,000 new apprenticeship starts by 2020.

“As well as growing the modern apprenticeship p ro g ramme, we are committed to enhancing and widening our apprenticeship offering, ensuring that more people than ever before can benefit from work- based learning.

SDS chief executive Damien Yeates also hailed the investment, saying the scheme will help “match the skills people develop with the ones employers need.”