LABOUR councillors want to make Inverclyde a fairer and more prosperous place and we believe this is best achieved by giving all who want it the opportunity to work.

A key priority for this administration has been to equip our population with the skills they need to compete for jobs and provide those far from the labour market with the opportunity to gain work experience to assist them secure permanent employment.

This strategy has been very successful over the last four years.

Our end to end employability programme, delivered through tendered contracts with third sector organisations like Inverclyde Community Development Trust, has seen the council commit nearly £9.5m to support local residents, with a further £1.9m coming from external sources.

By the end of the 2016 contract period around 5,200 Inverclyde residents had benefited from the programme with 1,660 positive outcomes and 1,528 jobs.

The council has consistently provided one of the most efficient employability programmes in Scotland.

Since 2012 we have invested £1.1m in our own Modern Apprenticeship programme, with 84 young people participating leading to 62 positive outcomes and 52 jobs. We currently have 22 young people at various stages on the programme.

The council has also delivered contracts on behalf of Skills Development Scotland worth £446,000 which have benefitted a further 229 young people.

A total of 334 clients have benefitted from our Health Barriers to Employment programme from a total investment of £534,000.

Six hundred and thirty Inverclyde residents have participated in our continued commitment to the Future Jobs Fund programme and 60 residents have been supported in our graduate programme.

The graduate programme success level in respect of job outcomes is 98 per cent.

A further 100 Inverclyde residents have gained employment with local businesses through our £3,500 wage incentive.

The council’s commitment to the City Deal programme has seen its investment of £117,000 increase to £219,000 through match funding to support 147 people with complex barriers to employment.

Our employability team have also delivered further external contracts totalling £877,000 on behalf of the Youth Employment Scotland Fund, the Scottish Employer Recruitment Incentive and the BIG Lottery Coastal Communities Fund to 331 clients with 328 job outcomes.

Between July 2015 and June 2016 there were 2,500 unemployed people in Inverclyde who were economically active, this represents a reduction of 2,300 for the comparable period of July 2011 to June 2012.

The differential between Inverclyde and the rest of Scotland has also significantly narrowed.

Other priorities we had in 2012 were to increase the number of new business start-ups in Inverclyde and provide support to new and developing businesses to grow.

Over the past five years an average of 150 businesses per year – a total of 750 - have started up in Inverclyde using our Business Gateway service.

Four hundred and thirty Inverclyde businesses have benefitted from business development interventions, including grants and loans, and the economic development section have dealt with 440 property enquiries in this period, with property assistance interventions resulting in fabric improvements to 120 businesses.

This is a record to be proud of.

The job is not finished however. Much more needs to be done equip our people with the right skills to move into better paid jobs and build a stronger economy less reliant on large employers in the public and private sectors.

Unfortunately the impending funding cuts from the Scottish Government will make this objective much harder to achieve.