Colleges get £52m job fund

COLLEGES across Edinburgh and the Lothians are to have access to a £52 million fund to help students into work.

The Employability Fund, announced as part of the ­Scottish Budget, will bring together a number of pre-existing training programmes.

Minister for Youth Employment, Angela Constance, announced the funding during a Holyrood debate on youth employment. She said that despite the number of unemployed young people falling by 25,000 in the last year, more needed to be done.

She said: “This is why we have asked the Scottish Funding Council to allocate £18m to colleges within existing ­committed resources for 2013/14, in ­addition to the £6m they will get from Skills Development Scotland.”