A new report on employment of young people in rural Scotland suggests that opportunities to improve their skills are limited.

Researchers from Glasgow University found that many small, rural employers had poor knowledge of the government's New Deal training programme.

Even those who were aware of it had difficulty in meeting the minimum training requirements.

There were few quality jobs available and many local employers relied heavily on seasonal workers.

Although the findings also show that rural-based youngsters are less likely to be out of work for long periods they face housing shortages, transport problems and low pay.

Many had worked in seasonal or part time jobs, but very few had found them a stepping stone to permanent, full time employment.

This was especially true of part time workers where a lack of alternative child care facilities placed a major barrier in the way of women.

The survey was based on interviews with 18 to 24 year olds who had recently been unemployed. The research was carried out in four areas:

• Argyll & Bute, mainly seasonal
• Cumnock and Doone, ex-industrial
• Stirlingshire, urban fringe
• Dumfries and Galloway, traditional rural

All the young people had been unemployed for at least three months when interviewed. They were then interviewed again six months later.

Some had got jobs, some had not. Women were more likely to have found employment but often part time.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which commissioned the report, said it shows that having a job is no protection against social exclusion for young people in rural areas.

Insecure

Fred Cartmel, co-author of the research, said:

"In each of the rural areas we studied, the firms employing young people tended to be small and young people within those companies tended to occupy the most insecure positions."

"The employers' view that demand for young people was concentrated in low-skilled jobs was borne out by the experiences of young people who frequently complained about the poor quality of employment opportunities."

His co-author, Andrew Furlong, said the work had shown up problems with the government's programme to deal with unemployment.

"I think it's very hard to address the problem in a uniform way and the New Deal is not likely to do that because the training that is integral to the New Deal is not available in rural areas."

"I think it's very difficult to envisage a programme that's based around urban areas working in rural areas when it's not based on what Tony Blair would call joined-up thinking across the various policy areas covering housing etc, you can't just concentrate on employment," said Mr Furlong.