Commenting on Scotland's first Apprenticeship Summit, hosted yesterday by the Scottish Government at the Signet Library in Edinburgh, the Scottish Building Federation has welcomed the initiative. But it warned that the ambition to create 1000 new modern apprenticeship places over the next 3 years could fail without further investment in industries such as construction that recruit significant numbers of apprentices.

The Federation called on Scottish ministers to match their support for apprenticeship places with accelerated investment in public infrastructure, greater incentives for private investment in construction and significant funding to improve the energy efficiency of buildings.

The Scottish Building Apprenticeship and Training Council, administered by the Scottish Building Federation, is responsible for the registration of apprenticeships within the Scottish construction sector and in 2008 registered approximately 2,250 new apprentices, equivalent to 15% of the total number of people starting an apprenticeship in Scotland each year.

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Last month, a survey of the Federation's membership found that construction firms expect they will have to scale back recruitment of apprentices by more than a third this year as a result of the economic downturn. The Federation has revealed that this corresponds to around 1,350 fewer apprenticeships in 2009 in areas including joinery, carpentry, bricklaying, painting and decorating, plastering, plumbing and electrical contracting.

Commenting on the summit, Scottish Building Federation Chief Executive Michael Levack said: "I commend the Scottish Government's ambition to create 1000 new modern apprenticeship places over the next 3 years. The construction industry relies on a consistent supply of high quality apprentices in order to maintain skills within the sector to a consistently high standard.

"But the creation of apprenticeship places cannot take place in a vacuum. Without matching investment in those industries that employ apprentices, I fear that this new apprenticeship push will fail. With construction hit particularly hard by the recession, Scottish ministers must realise that, rather than taking on more apprentices, many building firms are being forced to scale back on recruitment."

The SBF represents over 700 companies from Orkney to the Borders.

(GK/JM)