S4M-05276 Employability

The Deputy Presiding Officer (John Scott): The next item of business is a debate on motion S4M-05276, in the name of Kenneth Gibson, on the Finance Committee’s report “Improving employability”.

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16:00

Stewart Stevenson (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP):

Like other members, I congratulate the committee members and thank them for their considerable efforts. The report focuses mainly on preparing potential employees for work and in particular on those who are most distant from the prospect of early employment. There are perhaps two other factors that affect prospects. One is having control over all aspects of our economy, and the other is a bit more subtle—it is an aspect that we could do something about and it relates to employers.

I have just gone through a recruitment exercise for my constituency office. It did not involve people whom I would describe as hard to employ, but it illustrated something that is quite important. We had a good-quality group of applicants, all of whom were sourced through the website that I run. We brought in five applicants for an interview, before which we had a 30-minute practical test. The interview picked up on things from that test.

That process was not quite as straightforward as members might think, because it turned out that three of the five people whom we brought in could not commence the skills test, as they had neither pen nor pencil in their pocket. That told me something about me as an employer as much as it told me something about the potential employees. We are moving to an electronic world; as an employer, am I still stuck in the old world when I assess candidates’ qualities? As others have—properly—said, when we take on new people, we bring in new attitudes and new skills, which will be enormously valuable.

The committee has not neglected that issue. At paragraph 184, it says:

“The Committee ... considers it crucial that SMEs”—

which are large recruiters—

“receive appropriate support to enable them to offer sustainable employment opportunities to those furthest from the labour market.”

That picks up on Minerva People’s point that few SME businesses have a human resources department or a specialist with the necessary skills and experience in recruitment and selection. I am glad that the cabinet secretary’s response to that point was that it is necessary to look at a bit of management training for small companies.

We must look at the recruitment process. A successful recruitment process is not simply about ensuring continuity for the enterprise concerned, but about getting new skills and attitudes into companies and ensuring that they benefit from the process—that means not just filling a chair but filling minds with new ideas.

As she did in December, Kezia Dugdale has raised today the issue of the my world of work website. I took the opportunity to see whether I am suitable for anything and I found that, at my age and with my skills set, there are limited opportunities for me—thank goodness I got lucky and I got here.

We are absolutely underplaying the role of computers in training and educating people. It is clear that Kezia Dugdale will not be flying in the near future. The majority of the first revenue flights of the A380 Airbus—the latest aircraft into the fleet—are undertaken by pilots who have never flown that aircraft type before those first revenue flights. That is because, nowadays, the computers and simulators do the whole job.

We are moving towards a position in which computers can, by drawing on the skills and knowledge of a wide range of people and delivering them through a single access point, genuinely provide a set of skills that are much greater than those that can be delivered one on one. However, that does not remove the need for one-on-one interaction, which remains important too.

The committee looked at the my world of work website, and SDS made the point that an individual who wants to speak to an adviser can do so. However, the website personalises the computer experience based on the input from the people who use it. To imagine that using a computer involves the loss of personalisation is to fail to understand how modern computer systems should and do work. SDS also said that work coaches will work with and case manage young people, so it is a hybrid system—and properly so—that involves computers and other aspects.

People will have to change. Employers—such as me in my constituency office—and employees will be very different. The world will probably see very few people using pens and pencils in 10, 20 or 30 years’ time. I do not know when exactly that will be, but the evidence shows that it is happening already. That is the world for which we must ensure that people are equipped.

To adapt what St Thomas Aquinas said—I think that it was him; I am never quite sure—“Oh Lord, give me change, but let it not change anything.” That is often the way that people feel about things.

One point that we have not mentioned so far concerns a disadvantaged sector that it might be worth making a further effort to look at: we need to get people who have suffered from mental ill health back into work. That is a significant problem in our society, and it is a difficult area. People who have suffered from mental ill health particularly benefit from getting back into work, and from the social interaction as well as the financial benefits.

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