Food for thought on skills shortage

A NEW industry body, the British Takeaway Campaign, is asking the Government to make sure the correct vocational training is available to address skills shortages in areas such as curry, sushi, Chinese food and fish frying. It has also called for the Government to ensure that the immigration system allows access to skills.

Providing people with the skills to prepare takeaways is a good idea but, with roughly 130,000 people in Scotland chasing around 80,000 vacancies surely we don’t have to depend on immigrants to cook our meals? There must be other reasons why takeaway owners prefer immigrants. My suggestions would include the following: they turn up on time, they work harder, they cost less, they can fit into a different culture, or they actually see working in a takeaway as a better option than their current situation.

Surely some of the Scottish Government-funded quango Skills Development Scotland’s 1,200 employees could work with the takeaway industry to resolve this?

Allan Sutherland,

1 Willow Row, Stonehaven.

Reader George Crawford captured this summer scene of a ripening cereal field at West Kilbride with tiny hoverflies flitting around a thistle. He used a Panasonic Lumix TZ60, 1/1000second, f5.6, ISO200.