Highlands and Islands MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston has said helping people back into work after the Covid pandemic must be a priority for the next Scottish Government.
Speaking following their announcement at last weekend’s Scottish Conservative Conference, the Shadow Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy and Tourism welcomed his party’s plans for £500 ‘Retrain to Rebuild’ accounts, saying they would support people back into jobs and help develop their careers as the country rebuilds after the pandemic.
Mr Halcro Johnston said: “As we look to rebuild our economy after the pandemic, many people across the Highlands and Islands will be wondering what the future holds for them. A priority of the next Scottish Government – whatever party it is from - must be a laser-like focus on ensuring people have the skills they need to secure jobs."
“And that also means ensuring there are opportunities close to home so that we don’t see valuable local talent being lost as folk are forced to move away."
“We know that there are challenges ahead but, as we’ve seen with the UK Government’s world-beating vaccination programme and delivery of a furlough scheme which has protected hundreds of thousands of jobs and household incomes, these are challenges we can meet."
“But that does mean that whichever Scottish Government is elected in May, its focus must be on the next big challenge of delivering a world-beating skills revolution and not on more constitutional navel-gazing”.
Douglas Ross’s pledge is for everyone to be able to claim £500 for training every year through a ‘Retrain to Rebuild’ account; this will be a key element of the party’s skills and employment policies in the Scottish Conservative manifesto for the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.
The party would seek to roll out the scheme to 100,000 people for two years before expanding it to a universal scheme in 2023. In the first two years, the scheme would primarily be targeted at people who are currently unemployed, anyone facing redundancy, and people earning less than £30,000.
The proposals would also bring businesses, colleges and skills providers together in new Institutes of Technology to deliver rapid retraining courses and identify employment opportunities.
The Scottish Conservatives would fund the new proposal by streamlining some of the current Scottish Government skills and employment budget, topped up by some of the recent £1.2 billion additional Barnett funding from the UK Government.
