Report to the People
Back to Business
The Scottish Parliament literally got back to business last week with a series of debates in the Chamber and Committee on enterprise and industry.
In light of the sad announcement at the Motorola plant in Bathgate, much of the debate unsurprisingly focussed on the Scottish electronics industry.
You do not need me to tell you that the state of the electronics industry is of crucial importance to our community - 70% of our manufacturing jobs are in this sector.
My own Parliamentary week began on Tuesday morning with a summit on the Scottish electronics industry at Sun Microsystems in Linlithgow. While the overall message from the industry about future prospects was encouraging, they did raise some of the challenges they face. These included supply chain development, recycling, communications infrastructure and, above all, the need to have a highly educated workforce.
This familiar message has always been a goal of the Labour movement: from John McLean taking his soap-box to the gates of shipyards and factories in pursuit of the education of the workers, right down to the Scottish Parliament's commitment to the Lifelong Learning Revolution.
When the Committee returned to Edinburgh that afternoon for their formal meeting, they revisited the issue. Then, following Enterprise Minister, Wendy Alexander's, statement to the Chamber on the situation in Bathgate, we held a full debate on skills and workplace education.
In the debate, I argued that we have demonstrated the benefits of a knowledgeable, educated workforce. Not only to workers themselves, in terms of better, more secure jobs, but also to management. In return for treating their employees as an asset rather than an expense, companies are rewarded with a confident, motivated, highly skilled workforce, who can give their company the edge in the global marketplace.
Upskilling, of course, does not happen under management with a blinkered, sweatshop mentality. It only happens in partnership with an ambitious, progressive, far-sighted company.
We must therefore convince employers and employees of these benefits and of the need to invest and participate in education.
And it was this need for vision which I stressed when I spoke to the Chamber of Commerce on Friday. If we are to face up to the challenges and opportunities which undoubtedly face our community and ever changing economy, we need strategic, long-term thinking.
If Inverclyde means business, we must focus on the fundamental issues and work together to address them.
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