Speeches by Downie.

“In trying to plan something, and we have talked about doing this multi-year, that is presumably much harder when you have year-on-year budgets and you are scratching.”

“Related to that, we have seen at UK Government level a shift to try to raise the profile and the prestige of technical skills so that they are at least matched to university. We see this across sectors such as defence, where these are the skills that you have mentioned. We need welding, and we particularly need to rais…”

“Donna, can you pick up some of those points from your own experience on the ground in Aberdeen? How are those kinds of low-carbon jobs viewed on the ground? How important is the oil and gas sector for some of the work that you are trying to do to sustain the communities?”

“Do they just not believe that those new jobs are coming? Is that contributing?”

“Yes, that is probably for another inquiry, because I would actually happily pick that up with you. Thank you.”

“A quick question around language; we discussed this a little this morning. There are two elements. How careful should we be about language when discussing the industry? More broadly, and this has come up in other evidence sessions, if we are to maintain any kind of public confidence that these low-carbon economy jobs a…”

“I want to pick up on a couple of points made by both Paul and Susan. Paul, you talked about how we have that workforce ready to go to avoid the peaks and troughs you see in other industries. What skills should young people now be looking to train for? What should they be doing, and what should we ensure that the colleg…”

“Susan, if you can build on that, but also what is the current awareness in and around Aberdeen of the opportunities in low-carbon energy jobs for the future? How do young people in particular feel about that security? We covered that a little with the last panel.”

“What do they want to be instead?”

“They are moving towards the technical?”

“Donna, can you pick up some of those points from your own experience on the ground in Aberdeen? How are those kinds of low-carbon jobs viewed on the ground? How important is the oil and gas sector for some of the work that you are trying to do to sustain the communities?”

“Do they just not believe that those new jobs are coming? Is that contributing?”

“How do young people think about it?”

“Russell, when it comes to the supply chain jobs that exist around Aberdeenshire, how much can be transferred or evolved into low-carbon jobs, and what support is available?”

“Finally, Richard, talking about the differences between low-carbon economy jobs and oil and gas jobs from a union perspective, how different do those two jobs look when it comes to terms and conditions and how do we get one to match up and meet the other a bit better?”

“Yes, that is probably for another inquiry, because I would actually happily pick that up with you. Thank you.”

“Would you say it has become an excuse by successive Governments to pretend they are doing something?”

“Is there a way we can include the case studies that Donna Hutchison talked about in the written evidence? That would be helpful to make sure we are keeping the discussion on the communities and the individuals, if that is something that can be anonymised sufficiently.”

“What do they want to be instead?”

“Russell, when it comes to the supply chain jobs that exist around Aberdeenshire, how much can be transferred or evolved into low-carbon jobs, and what support is available?”