Gazetteer: An enterprising move for pupils

PUPILS from Grantown-on-Spey have swapped the classroom for the boardroom as they take part in a mock business conference.

Organisers of the two-day event, which concludes today, say they want to give high school students the chance to get first-hand information about a career in business "as opposed to what they may have gleaned from BBC1's The Apprentice".

More than 40 sixth-year pupils from Grantown Grammar School are taking part in the conference, organised by enterprise education charity Businessdynamics and funded by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and the Cairngorms National Park Authority.

Andrea Herb, the science, technology, engineering and mathematics development manager at HIE, said: "Bringing together schools and business is a great way to support the development of our entrepreneurs of tomorrow."

Marketing, management, design and development are all on the agenda at the event in the Grant Arms Hotel in Grantown.

KILLER QUOTE

UNLIKE governments in previous recessions, we won't abandon an entire generation of young people to long-term unemployment."

Employment minister Jim Knight on the government's Future Jobs Fund and the Young Person's Guarantee, which offers 18- to 24-year-olds either a job or training.

FACT OF THE DAY

1,800

FIVE hundred Scottish engineering firms and 1,800 jobs are "at risk" according to Semta, the sector skills council for science, engineering and manufacturing technologies.

Semta estimates 12 per cent of Scotland's 4,100 firms are "at risk" because they are failing to identify gaps and train or hire staff to fill those gaps. The skills council yesterday unveiled a five point plan to help firms tackle skills shortages.

GOOD DAY

Isle of Shuna

THE Shetland shellfish supplier has received a £500,000 grant from the European Fisheries Fund to develop kitchen facilities. Donny Gillies, managing director of Isle of Shuna, says it will help the firm to double production and create up to ten new jobs.

BAD DAY

Tax havens

MINISTERS from countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development have agreed on the possibility of imposing sanctions on nations that do not stick to the OECD's tax standards, putting further pressure on those labelled as "tax havens".