Recruitment agencies are scouring the world to bring skilled workers to Scotland due to the SNP's "abject failure" to invest in workforce training, Scottish Labour deputy leader has said.

Alex Rowley mocked the SNP's invitation to voters to "judge us on our record" - insisting its record is one of "arrogant complacency" on skills development, in a speech to the Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow.

He said: "The building industry tells us that we have a skills shortage - a shortage of brickies, of plumbers, of joiners, indeed a shortage of most trades in the building sector.

"In our communities we have a GP crisis. Not my words, but the words of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

"We simply do not have, and have not been supporting and training, enough GPs.

"In many health boards across Scotland there is a shortage of consultants and those same boards are telling us that they also find it difficult to recruit, train and qualify nurses.

"In schools across Scotland, educational authorities cannot recruit teachers. We have a teacher shortage.

"In companies across Scotland, we cannot recruit engineers and skilled labour, so there's a shortage in engineering.

"Across Europe and across the world there are recruitment agencies trying to find skilled workers to come to Scotland in order to fill Scotland's skills gap.

"So, on training, on skills, on investment in Scotland's greatest asset - its people - the SNP government's record is not just one of arrogant complacency - it is one of abject failure."