{"id":993831,"date":"2026-05-30T06:42:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T06:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/993831\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T06:42:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T06:42:19","slug":"scotland-faces-prospect-of-a-lost-generation-of-young-people-says-inverclyde-mp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/993831\/","title":{"rendered":"Scotland faces prospect of a ‘lost generation’ of young people, says Inverclyde MP"},"content":{"rendered":"

READERS of the Greenock<\/a> Telegraph may be aware that, this week, a new report was published that has warned of the coming ‘lost generation’ of young people who are neither working nor learning.<\/p>\n

I believe nowhere should that warning be taken more seriously than here in Scotland.<\/p>\n

The Milburn Review, led by the former Labour Health Secretary Alan Milburn, has painted a worrying picture of rising youth joblessness and growing numbers of young people cut off from kinds of education, employment and training.<\/p>\n

Alan Milburn’s report on young people and their work prospects was published this week.<\/p>\n

I believe that Scotland\u2019s young people, including here in Inverclyde<\/a> and Renfrewshire West, deserve far better, and I find it impossible to ignore the SNP<\/a>\u2019s role in this failure.<\/p>\n

After nearly two decades in power, and with another five years to come, the SNP cannot blame Westminster<\/a> for every problem while escaping scrutiny for their own record. Education and skills are devolved. Colleges and universities sit firmly under the control of the Scottish Government<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If young people across Scotland are struggling to get that crucial first step into work, training or another opportunity, then the responsibility lies with Holyrood<\/a>. They have had the powers and the time to build a system that works for our young people, yet they have failed to deliver it.<\/p>\n

(Image: Pexels.com)<\/p>\n

Colleges have faced repeated budget pressures and cuts, something we know in Greenock all too well, while vocational routes are treated as secondary to university pathways.<\/p>\n

When I met with River Clyde Homes apprentices earlier this year, they told me that too often schools continue to push university courses as the best option for everyone, despite many people wanting to choose a different path. The apprenticeships on offer across the country cannot keep up with the demand.<\/p>\n

Scotland\u2019s young people have enormous potential. Our young people are talented and ambitious, but they need a government focused less on constitutional division and more on creating opportunity.<\/p>\n

In the constituency<\/strong><\/p>\n

It has been great to spend a lot of time in the Inverclyde sunshine during the Parliamentary recess this week.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, I was out and about with my team in Gourock<\/a> holding a street surgery, talking to people directly on their doorsteps about what matters to them.<\/p>\n

I also visited RIG Arts on Wednesday in their new home, the Pirrie Hall at the Old West Kirk in Greenock. They have such a fantastic array of programmes running which I\u2019d encourage everyone to take a look at. Find out more at\u00a0rigarts.org\/workshops-activities.<\/p>\n

(Image: Alex Craig)<\/p>\n

On Thursday, I went along to see the 49F Greenock MacRoberts Reply Royal Air Force Air Cadets which gives young people opportunities to develop leadership, teamwork and citizenship skills.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I was pleased to meet with constituents at one of my regular surgeries at the Tesco in Greenock, and today, I am holding my monthly coffee morning in St John\u2019s Church Hall in Gourock from 11am until 1pm.<\/p>\n

Please do pop along for a cuppa, a biscuit and a chat \u2013 I\u2019d love to see you there!<\/p>\n

As always, if I can do anything to support you, please get in touch with me via my office by emailing martin.mccluskey.mp@parliament.uk<\/a> or by phoning 01475 789 223.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READERS of the Greenock Telegraph may be aware that, this week, a new report was published that has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":993832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5009],"tags":[275897,748,4884,24805,4954,27594,712,16,15],"class_list":["post-993831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scotland","tag-alan-milburn","tag-britain","tag-great-britain","tag-greenock","tag-inverclyde","tag-lost-generation","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=993831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/993832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=993831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=993831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=993831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}