Developing the Young Workforce: annual report 2014-15

Case Study - Schools and Partnerships

Developing the Young Workforce Activity in Perth and Kinross

Partnership event

In March 2015 Perth and Kinross Council hosted a conference at Perth Racecourse gathering together over 100 stakeholders involved in the Developing Young Workforce agenda. As well as launching a new local policy about Enterprise and Employability and how secondary schools will take this forward, delegates considered how local stakeholders can work together to improve the employment prospects of young people. Those at the conference were given the opportunity to hear different points of view on the subject having received presentations from the Scottish Government, Perth and Kinross Council, local employers, Skills Development Scotland, Perth College, as well as head-teachers and pupils themselves.

“As a global company, with a local presence we are committed to working with secondary schools in Perth and Kinross and our message to pupils is that qualifications open the door but only a positive attitude and growth mindset guarantee success.” (Representative of Aviva, Theresa Ewan)

Feedback from the event was very positive with a greater understanding achieved on all sides. Schools have been following up with business breakfasts locally, organised by their newly appointed Enterprise and Employability project officers. The conference and the business breakfasts have built upon partnerships, both new and existing, to create new opportunities for work experience, mentoring, enterprise projects and other longer-term projects exploring skills, qualifications and attributes for particular pathways and sectors. Specifically, employers asked for more communication on key dates to allow them to better plan their engagement with schools and for a follow-up event which is provisionally planned to take place in March 2016 to update all stakeholders on the progress to-date and to share good practice.

Crieff High School

Recently, Crieff High School in Perth and Kinross held a Developing the Young Workforce staff conference to give teachers the opportunity to discuss what it means to create world class work relevant learning opportunities for their young people. Deputy Head Teacher, David MacLuskey had this to say about the event:

“In Crieff High School we have included DYW as one of our key priorities within our School Improvement Plan this year. We wanted to highlight our commitment by organising this conference. The morning of the conference was really well received with many great ideas and key partnerships coming from it. We were lucky to attract some really engaging and inspiring speakers and facilitators and staff have told us since, that this really helped them in their plans to take more DYW activity forward. From the event, each department within the school has decided on three DYW priorities and all are developing Curricular Business Partners as part of this.”

DYW programme board member Paul McKelvie OBE, spoke at the event to highlight the important part teachers and practitioners have in influencing young people, and commented:

“I was delighted to be invited to speak to staff at Crieff High School on Developing the Young Workforce. Teachers and practitioners are pivotal to the implementation of the DYW programme so it’s very important they are involved from the beginning. The enthusiasm and motivation amongst staff at Crieff High School for their young people was really inspirational. As a member of the DYW Programme board, it is great to talk to teachers about how they are influencing young people to think about future jobs and careers, and the many options open to them after school.’’