Major summit to be held over jobs

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A major cross-party summit on jobs and skills will be held before the end of the year, it has been agreed.

The summit will include politicians, unions, and other organisations ranging from chambers of commerce to college bosses and members of the public.

It will study the effectiveness of measures taken to try to ease unemployment caused by the recession.

The plan was agreed at a meeting involving Alex Salmond, Jim Murphy and union and business representatives.

The first minister and Scottish secretary were in discussions with STUC general secretary Grahame Smith and CBI Scotland director Iain McMillan in the latest in a series of meetings on the economy.

Mr Smith said the mood of the meeting, held in Glasgow, ranged from "cautious optimism to reluctant pessimism" over the state of the economy.

Our aim is to ensure that another generation of young Scots does not get left behind to a life on benefit Jim MurphyScottish Secretary

"We agreed that the four of us would host a summit before the end of the year on the issue of employment and unemployment," he said.

"We would look at the interventions under way and how effective these are, and what further needs to be done to ensure our workforce and economy is equipped to deal with the issues faced in the recession and beyond."

He said the summit would be an attempt to engage with other bodies to decide what action should be taken.

Mr McMillan said it would also try to ensure employers are aware of the help available from the Scottish and Westminster governments - and to learn from other bodies of what further action can be taken to mitigate the effects of the recession.

Thousands of people in Scotland have been affected by a global recession - which Mr Murphy claimed was largely brought about by the "reckless" decisions of a few bankers worldwide.

He added: "Our aim is to ensure that another generation of young Scots does not get left behind to a life on benefit.

"More widely than that, it's to ensure that when the recovery does take place no-one is left behind in Scotland."

'Conflict and confrontation'

He said this would involve studying whether the UK and Scottish governments had the right policies to get the country moving again once the recession ended.

Mr Salmond cited measures being undertaken by Westminster and Holyrood, such as money for apprenticeships.

He added that the meeting confirmed that various agencies were already working closely together to ensure the maximum effectiveness of measures to help skills and employment.

"Now is the time to broadcast that further, and have it tested with a range of social partners so we can maximise Scotland's preparedness for emerging from recession into recovery," he said.

Liberal Democrat finance spokesman Jeremy Purvis called for ministers to make use of a particular type of European funding for small businesses.

"If Alex Salmond is serious about tackling the recession then he must abandon his trademark approach of conflict and confrontation with Westminster," he said.