Labour’s Andy Kerr has said that he wants a partnership with Scottish business to help create 10,000 jobs and save a generation of young people from being thrown on the scrapheap.
 
He pledged that a Scottish Future Jobs Fund will be open to business. Any small business that is prepared to create a new job for a young person unemployed for over six months will be eligible to take part.
 
This would be a change from the UK Government scheme, which is effectively restricted to the voluntary sector and local councils because it requires participants to show that they are providing an additional benefit to the community.
 
Scottish Labour believes that the big priority is to get young people into work and providing a job to someone who has been unemployed for over six months it itself a community benefit.
 
Mr Kerr added that the first vacancies will be advertised within 100 days of Labour winning power in Scotland. He said that Labour’s efforts to tackle youth unemployment would be the defining feature of the election campaign.
 
Shadow Finance Secretary Andy Kerr said:‪
 
“I want a partnership with Scottish business to help create 10,000 jobs and save a generation of young people from being thrown on the scrapheap. We cannot allow the mistakes of the 1980s to be repeated.
‪“Young people have been the biggest victims of the recession and the number of 18 to 24 years old who have been unemployed for over six months has more than doubled in the last two years.
 
“That is why Labour will make our efforts to tackle youth unemployment the defining feature of the election campaign. We will cut through red tape and give small businesses more support to take on youngsters.
 
“The first vacancies from the Scottish Future Jobs Fund will be advertised within 100 days of a Labour government taking power in Scotland and my pledge is that it will also be open to business."

14 February 2011