Listen
Safeguarding apprenticeships
01/11/2009
Small and medium businesses in the construction, engineering and manufacturing industries will be offered financial support to safeguard the jobs of any apprentice at threat of redundancy.
The Scottish Government's 'Safeguard an Apprentice' scheme will provide employers with £75 a week for eligible apprentices until the end of March 2010.
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Fiona Hyslop will make the announcement when she visits Grant Westfield Ltd in Edinburgh tomorrow.
Fiona Hyslop said:
"This Government is committed to doing everything that we can to help people in this current economic climate and ScotAction is the Scottish Government's skills support package for providing real financial support to businesses and individuals through the recession.
"The Scottish Government fully recognises the challenges that have been faced by Scottish businesses in recent months. I also know that many small firms have had to balance the need to keep their heads above water with the desire to continue to develop staff skills for the future.
"That is why I am inviting small and medium size businesses in the Construction, Engineering and Manufacturing sectors who think that they may have to let their apprentices go to contact Skills Development Scotland for more information. The Scottish Government, with European Social Fund support, want to provide employers with £75 a week to help towards the wage costs of these apprentices so that they can continue in their training.
"I firmly believe that in order to ensure that our economy continues to be competitive in a global market over the next few years we need to invest now in people who can develop the skills that we will need in the future.
"The 'Safeguard an Apprentice' demonstrates that the Scottish Government can deliver practical help to support businesses and individuals through the recession."
Welcoming the announcement the Federation of Small Businesses' (FSB) Scottish Policy Convenor, Andy Willox, said:
"During the last 18 months, many strong, successful, viable firms have had their backs up against the walls due to circumstances entirely out of their control. A short period of economic turbulence cannot be allowed to take the life opportunities away from individuals and the long term success of our businesses and the communities they support.
"The value of apprentices to individual businesses, as demonstrated by FSB research, is enormous - for example filling skills gaps and motivating other members of staff. Additional support for small firms to keep on the staff which are going to be vital for their success and Scotland's future, is very welcome."
ScotAction is an integrated package combining new and improved measures to help individuals and businesses through the recession and will provide skills assistance - including wage subsidies in some circumstances - for training for work, training in work and training from work to work to help Scottish people and businesses survive the downturn and thrive when the economy starts to recover.
Through ScotAction, the Scottish Government has announced much support for the Apprenticeship Programme over the last few months including:
- £16 million available for an additional 7,800 Modern Apprentices
- £6 million has been made available to fund an additional 1,000 apprentices in Glasgow over the next 3 years to support the Commonwealth Games legacy,
- 50 apprentices in the Creative Sector and announced funding for 100 apprenticeships for Home Energy and Efficiency in partnership with Scottish and Southern Energy.
- new apprenticeship framework for the Life Science industry has now been developed to support the growth of one of Scotland's key sectors
- funding to support '2 for 1' Life Science Apprenticeships
- the 'Adopt An Apprentice' scheme where employers can receive a helping hand of £2000 to employ a redundant apprentice
- introducing an additional 170 early years modern apprenticeships
- funding for 2000 MAs for the retail sector
- a £2000 financial incentive for SMEs to take on a new apprentice in the manufacturing, textiles, food and drink and energy sectors
Skills Development Scotland, Scotland's national skills agency, will play a leading role in taking forward the delivery of the initiatives that ScotAction will deliver for Scotland at this time.