Forget medicine and law - get pupils into IT and engineering Published on Thursday 10 May 2012 02:39 PARENTS should be educated about the plentiful jobs available for their children in IT and engineering, Scotland's enterprise chief said yesterday, as MSPs heard fresh evidence on ways to grow Scotland's economy. Lena Wilson, Scottish Enterprise chief executive, insisted that youngsters going through school should find work if they focused on growth areas in the economy, such as life sciences and renewable energy. Her comments came at a session on economic revival held by Holyrood's finance committee yesterday, which also included Strathclyde University's principal, Professor Jim McDonald, and Lloyds Banking Group's Scottish chief, Philip Grant. The three were invited as a result of The Scotsman's "Growing Scotland" series, published in the paper last month. It heard all three backing a renewed focus on growth opportunities in new sectors in the Scottish economy, as a way of combating warnings that the country faces a "lost decade" of stagnating growth. Dr Wilson told MSPs it was "all too easy to get caught up in the gloomy data" affecting the economy. However, she insisted there were "oustanding opportunities" across growth sectors. In The Scotsman last month, she had warned that, for too many middle-class families, it was still all about "accountancy, medicine or law." She told MSPs yesterday: "We have to educate parents first, and then pupils and teachers, into what is happening in the economy and where the opportunities actually are." She added: "We need to encourage the brightest and the best to get into IT and engineering, because there are lots and lots of jobs available." The enterprise agency said last night it would now be forming a new partnership with Skills Development Scotland, the country's main careers service, to promote more the opportunities in such sectors. Prof Macdonald said Scotland should be "incentivising" youngsters to get into such growth sectors. He added: "We must make sure that the quality of science and mathematics teaching in Scotland is first-class, and we must make sure that industry plays its full role in investing and communicating with parents what a job in engineering and IT means." Also giving evidence, Mr Grant said the pressures on the Scottish economy were genuine. He said: "Looking to the longer term, as a Scot living and working in Scotland, with children developing through education, I share the very real concern of many as to whether there will be opportunity for them." However, he remained "optimistic" that Scotland could find a way through the head winds of the global economy. Asked about the referendum debate, Mr Grant said it was "no bad thing" for people to be made aware of the "brand of Scotland." However, he said that "the definition of a region, or nation, or country" was "irrelevent." Rather, investors wanted to know whether the opportunities in a country were available.