It has been a busy fortnight since I last wrote for The Tele so I was hoping take the opportunity to share some personal news with readers.

As many of you will have already seen, I have recently made the decision to stand for the leadership of the Scottish Conservative Party.

Launching my campaign in Greenock, my home town, I set out my plans to regenerate our high streets and shopping centres, like the Oak Mall, and give our young people the tools they need to thrive in this new digital economy.

My pitch is focussed on rebuilding my party and our country for the next generation...which brings me nicely onto a much more important topic.  

Last Tuesday marked exam results day for hundreds of pupils in Inverclyde receiving their National 5’s, Highers and Advanced Highers.

This year’s results were another resounding success for Inverclyde’s young people with pass rates across the board hitting almost 90 per cent. Two-thirds of pupils gained at least one Higher qualification and almost half of all S4 pupils achieved five passes at National 5 level.

Let’s make no mistake, this is a resounding success for young people across the community and highlights the hard work of those school staff and parents who have dedicated years to ensuring our young people are successful.  

Yet, we can always aim higher, always strive to achieve more. These exam results broadly reflect the same picture from 2023, and it seems less than half of our students achieved the minimum target of three Higher qualifications although this does represent an improvement from last year.

Equally, what about the third of students that didn’t achieve at least one Higher qualification, or the 50 per cent of students that didn’t achieve five passes in their National 5s?

You hear politicians and organisations pulling out the usual soundbite of there being “no wrong path” to achieving your career goals. And whilst they’re right, we don’t back that mantra up with action.

We, as a society, still put far too much focus on university being the “correct path” after school, when the reality is that many young people would find much more success with an apprenticeship, working and learning on the job, or even starting their own businesses.

It’s our job as politicians to change that and turn our warm words into action.