Youth unemployment rates in Scotland have fallen to 17% compared with 20.6% for the whole of the UK, according to new figures published by the Office for National Statistics.
Lorraine Pitman, a Careers Consultant at Robert Gordon’s University, believes this is because universities are pushing students to do more extracurricular activities.
She said: “Students are more aware of what they have to do. They’ve acknowledged that they have to get the degree plus extra, but I think that’s through universities raising awareness.”
She added: “I think the added benefit that Robert Gordon’s University has is that a lot of our courses have got the placement element.”
However she denied that young people get into employment easier saying that it’s “still a challenge” but if the graduates take the advice given to them they will be successful.
But it’s not just youth unemployment that has gone down. Scotland has seen a drop in figures as a whole.
According to the ONS, Scotland’s unemployment figures fell by 4000 between November and January.
This contrasted with the UK which saw a rise of 7000 as a whole.
Finance Secretary John Swinney told the BBC the statistics were a “welcome improvement” and showed Scotland has its lowest unemployment rate in over 3 years.
The Scottish Trades Union Congress general secretary Grahame Smith agreed it was good news but added that the fall in figures was led by men and that women’s employment fell.
No comments:
Post a Comment