Senior high school pupils and art students will have the opportunity to develop their fledgling careers under new Scottish Government “baby box” plans.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced in her keynote address to the SNP conference that a competition will be launched alongside V&A Dundee to design the outside of the Finnish-inspired gifts.
The boxes contain items such as baby clothes and nappies and newborns can sleep inside them.
Finland has been giving out such care packages to all expectant mothers for 80 years they have been credited with cutting infant mortality and raising life chances.
The people behind the design museum currently being built by the Tay will choose the winner, who will receive help to push them towards a career in the industry as reward.
A competition is held each year in Finland, with fanfare when the winner is announced.
The first mothers living in pilot areas, one of which is expected to be rural and the other marked as deprived, will start receiving the boxes in January with a full roll-out taking place next summer.
Ms Sturgeon told party members in Glasgow on Saturday: “Next month, we’ll launch a competition – in partnership with the V&A in Dundee – for the design of the box.
“The first boxes will be delivered to babies born in pilot areas on New Year’s Day. Now, I don’t know about you, but as a first foot offering, I think that beats a lump of coal!
“And, then next summer, every new born baby across the country will receive a baby box full of clothes, nappies, bedding, books and toiletries.
“The baby box is a powerful symbol of our belief that all children should start life on a level playing field. That’s what inclusion means in practice.”
The Finnish government reportedly gives away more than 40,000 of the boxes each year.
V&A Dundee has been asked to comment.
