Skills and Education for Youth Employment in Scotland: A Critical Discussion

Abstract

Introduction: Issues surrounding youth employment have become the focus of attention for policymakers across Europe and Scotland is no different. In line with their contemporaries, policymakers in Scotland and the UK have focused upon the need to ensure that young workers are adequately skilled to gain opportunities within today’s labour markets and have therefore engaged in a number of programmes and initiatives designed to ensure that young workers are ‘ job ready’. This approach, whilst understandable, nevertheless requires greater scrutiny due to the risk of an imbalanced approach to youth employment which valorizes ‘supply-side issues’ such as skills, training and qualifications over ‘demand-side issues’ such as job creation strategies and the development of better quality employment. This chapter focuses on efforts in Scotland and asks whether a more integrated, balanced approach to youth employment issues may be possible.