80%!! That is truly worrying and shocking!!

As lots of us have always suspected local councils are more concerned about the stats and how many pass the exams to make the councils look good, cram in the answers to the questions and ignore the rudimentary of the subjects and when they leave school they are left bare of actual skills.

I think you'll find that the 80 per cent figure refers to the applicants for the low skilled jobs that Arnold Clark is offering, not 80 per cent of the entire young workforce and this is probably true.

The education system, including our FE Colleges, is not good at upskilling our young people in the D, E, F categories and preparing them for the world of work. This is why we proposed a Skills Centre directly linked to business, so that courses could be tailored to what business needs.

Re Gordon's comment: I've been unfortunate enough to have had some car problems recently, and due to the advances in technical systems in cars now, I think that a mechanic's job is not low skilled, in fact, the contrary!! Unlike years ago when you could just stick your head under the bonnet and have a rough idea what might be wrong, you look under the bonnet now and it could be an aircraft your looking at!
The way I read it was that 80% of applicants were unemployable, and that is still an uncomfortable statistic whatever the job and warrants questions about how young people are being taught to enter the world of work.

Actually, I think modern mechanics are less skilled than in the old days. They are fitters, not mechanics. ...they just replace parts. Plus they have electronic diagnostic machines to tell them what is wrong, instead of having to work it out for themselves. Older cars, we had a hope of repairing ourselves, but with everything run by onboard computers, this is no longer possible...so while actually having to understand HOW a car works is a thing of the past, these garage fitters are more essential than before, due to modern technology and the fact that few of us will have access to diagnostic equipment.

The lack of fitness to be employed is not a slur on their mental ability...more a comment on their lack of self-discipline ...they are basically lazy....or prefer to amuse themselves rather than work 5 days a week. If they don't feel like going to work, they won't. Maybe they are not 'hungry' enough.

There was a program about getting our unemployed to do the work the immigrants did...Polish people for example...some of it seasonal. Of those offered the chance, some did not even bother to turn up the first day, or at all. Others would not work properly, preferring to move slowly, chat among themselves and complain and the employers after a week said, if they had to employ them, their businesses would go bust. They just do not have the work ethic that other countries have.

In my own experience, I have had student 'colleagues' take over an hour break, (they were tired, poor souls) when they were supposed to have 15 minutes....which meant their co-workers could not get their breaks on time and I got none at all, because I had to fill in for them while they were away.