As shadow education secretary during the toughest of years of Covid, facing John Swinney eye-to-eye across the Holyrood benches, I battled for fairness in an exams system which downgraded those from poorer backgrounds, for support for teachers and for a radical overhaul of the bodies in charge of Scottish education. Most of my pleas fell on deaf ears, though now some seeing the light of day. 

This year’s latest SQA headlines reminded me of my oft said mantra, that university isn’t the be all and end all. Many young people find success with apprenticeships, learning on the job, or even starting their own business. Last week I launched my calls for a Young Entrepreneur Fund, grants aimed to help young Scots build their own start-up. But I want to go one step further. 

We live in a rapidly changing, increasingly digital, and incredibly flexible job market where historically dominant skills are being replaced by technology. 

To combat this and ensure the next generation of Scots are equipped with the skills they need, we need to help young people down whichever path they choose, not just the one which ticks government “positive destination” boxes. Many of the skills of the future lie in AI, cybersecurity, and our fast-growing space, renewables, and pharma industries. 

No matter your educational pathway I believe all young Scots deserve a chance at bona-fide accreditation in the industries which will build our future economies. I want to see the establishment of a Future Skills and Training Scheme; training credits to anyone under 30, provided by accredited bodies and recognised by providers in these industries. 

Under this scheme, anyone aged 16 to 30 could be allocated up to £3000 in virtual credits to fund courses. Redeemed online, via one to one training from private providers or go towards helping small businesses train new recruits via accredited formal training.

Beyond its obvious benefit to those leaving school or university, this could also provide retraining to someone facing redundancy or someone making a necessary career change. 

Secondly, I want to see young Scots get ahead not just in the domestic market, but become more competitive and sought after around the world. Scotland is home to amazing talent, but we can become world leading. To do that, however, we need to up our game on foreign language education, which has seen a disgraceful fall in uptake over recent years.

I am a passionate advocate of modern language education and many young people I meet share that enthusiasm. It opens doors, unlocks opportunities and builds friendships across the world.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen a worrying 25% reduction in the number of young people studying a language at higher level. Some Scottish Universities have been consulting on scrapping their single honours courses in French, German and Spanish due to a steep fall in applicants. Something has to change.  

Perhaps we reinstate the requirement for languages to be studied for the first four years of secondary school. Perhaps we need a marked shift from grammar-obsessed textbooks in favour of engaging content, moving from our “talking about the language” to a “talking in the language” approach. Perhaps we simply need more language teachers and language assistants. 

The Scottish Government must seriously consider golden handshakes and incentives to attract new language teachers. Equally, the UK government must be open to specialist visas for language teachers and make it easier and more desirable for language assistants to work in our schools.

There is mutual benefit in the export of our English language training and the welcoming of native speakers through an established route. As an ambitious target, I want to see at least two foreign languages available in every single Scottish high school by the end of the next Scottish Parliament in 2031. 

Policies that talk to and benefit the next generation of young people must lie at the heart of any talk in current “leadership contests”.  The Scottish Conservatives can turn a corner and offer young people a positive future,  but we first need to make the right decision about our own.