The apprenticeship system aims to develop young people's skills

Alex Neil, convener of Holyrood's enterprise committee, said the current scheme fails trainees and employers.

The Scottish National Party MSP wants more flexible traineeships, paying the minimum wage and covering older people.

A Scottish Executive spokesman said its modern apprenticeships scheme had helped tens of thousands of people.

But Mr Neil said the current apprentice system was too inflexible and did not provide trainees with the skills needed to plug gaps in the labour market.

The modern apprenticeship programme should be doing much more to give people the skills in which they can get a job Alex Neil MSP Enterprise committee convener

He also said less than half the annual apprentice courses are completed.

Mr Neil, who will outline his proposals at a skills conference in St Andrews on Tuesday, said there was a need to lever greater employer investment in skills and a greater focus on individuals.

And he said this would require a move away from "an exclusively supply side drive approach" which focused on training companies and schemes.

Apprenticeships should be offered to older people, especially middle-aged, long-term unemployed men, according to Mr Neil.

Academic basis

He told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme: "The modern apprenticeship programme should be doing much more to give people the skills in which they can get a job at the end of it.

"There are major skills shortages in the building trade, in oil and gas, in care homes and in a whole range of other sectors in Scotland and yet they cannot get the people with the skills."

Business has disputed the need for minimum wage

And he said all trainees should be paid the minimum wage, a proposal that has already attracted criticism from employers.

Chief executive of Scottish Engineering, Peter Hughes, dismissed the call for paying the minimum wage.

Mr Hughes said: "He's also falling into the trap of thinking that modern apprenticeships are routes for kids who are not academically qualified.

"Nothing could be further than the truth."

But Stephen Boyd of the STUC welcomed the proposals.

He said: "Too many young people are leaving trainee schemes to work in places like McDonalds, which unfortunately receive higher levels of pay.

Dropping out

"The way to address this is quite simple, it's for the quality of the training to be improved and the level of remuneration to be improved accordingly."

The executive said the current scheme enabled young people to learn crucial skills, while helping to ensure that companies could recruit employees with the level of skills and training they needed.

But Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning, Allan Wilson, said while some young people were not interested, the scheme had a good success rate of 60%.

We've got all immigrants now working for us, who are people who wish to work Jim McPhie McPhie's Craft Bakers

He said: "Giving qualitative training can be a problem for some but most modern apprenticeships have encouraged young people to follow structured training routes, which are developed to industry standards and national qualifications.

"The vast majority of modern apprenticeships go on to very good job prospects."

The minister also dismissed the need to broaden the age range of the scheme.

Craig Douglas dropped out of his apprenticeship with a refrigeration firm after he ended up doing deliveries.

He said: "The engineers that were meant to be training us up, they weren't getting paid, they weren't trained to teach new younger engineers, I felt as if I was coasting along."

Jim McPhie, of McPhie's Craft Bakers in Glasgow, has given up on the scheme, claiming he has found that many Scots not already in higher education did not want to work.