Our plan for Scotland: delivering for young people

by Grant Costello
Posted on
7 years ago
2 min read

Nicola Sturgeon has announced the Scottish Government’s plans for the year ahead. The Programme for Government sets out how we will support young people across Scotland, giving young people best chance to succeed.

Here’s how we will deliver for Scotland’s young people.

An equal chance to succeed in education

  • We will keep university free and take new action to widen access. We will provide full, non-repayable bursaries to care experienced young people awarded a place at university.

 

  • To ensure young people have the skills needed in the jobs of the future, we will publish our STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education strategy. This will also look at how we can improve participation of women and girls.

 

  • We will continue to work with the Time for Inclusive Education (TIE) campaign to tackle and bring an end to bullying, discrimination and prejudice faced by LGBTI young people in schools.

 

Getting a job or place in training

 

  • Scotland now has one of the lowest youth unemployment rates in Europe. In the coming year we will continue work towards reducing youth unemployment by 40 per cent by 2021.

 

  • A new rural skills action plan will be produced in 2018 to enhance job opportunities for young people.

 

  • We will continue to increase the number of Modern Apprenticeships, to meet our commitment to 30,000 places per year by 2020.

An affordable home to buy or rent

  • We will deliver 50,000 affordable homes across Scotland by the end of this Parliament.

 

  • We will help young people get onto the housing ladder with our Help to Buy and shared equity schemes.

 

  • We will introduce new energy efficiency standards for the private rented sector to help lower fuel bills in privately rented accommodation.

 

  • We have extended the Scottish Welfare Fund to help 18-21 year old affected by the UK government’s decision to end their entitlement to support with housing costs.

The Year of Young People

  • In 2018, Scotland’s Year of Young People, we will work to enhance the rights of young people and embed the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into policy and legislation.

 

  • We will also consider new ways to strengthen the voice of children and young people in schools.

 

  • And we will establish a Cultural Youth Experience Fund to improve opportunities for young people to participate in cultural activities.