Scottish Employer Perspectives Survey: 2019

Developing the Young Workforce (DYW)

The Scottish EPS 2019 included questions focusing on DYW, the Scottish Government’s youth employment strategy. 21 employer-led DYW Regional Groups in Scotland are a key mechanism for employers to engage with DYW and to develop employer-education partnerships. 

The EPS 2019 asked a new set of questions on DYW Regional Groups. A key indicator of DYW’s success is the extent to which employers are aware of the Groups and whether they have engaged with them, or conducted/facilitated employer-education partnership activities supported by them. Some questions included in previous years of the EPS were also edited to include DYW and/or DYW Regional Groups in their scope, or to reflect changes introduced as part of DYW (for example the Work Placement Standard). 

Work placements at school

20% of employers provided work placements to young people at school in the preceding year.

This is the same proportion as in 2016.  Larger establishments are more likely to offer placements, with 51% of employers with over 100 employees offering work placements to school pupils.

Employers in the ‘Education’ sector are most likely to offer work placements to school pupils, with 54% of all employers doing so. ‘Primary sector and utilities’, ‘Construction’ and ‘Hotels and restaurants’ were least likely to offer such placements, with respectively 12%, 13% and 13% of employers doing so (Figure 7).

Most employers who provide placements for school pupils have had one or two such placements (40% and 23% respectively); 5% of employers have had 10 or more. Of those employers who provide work placements for school pupils, the average number of placements is 3.4 pupils.

The majority (84%) of employers had not recruited a school pupils into a permanent or long‑term paid role following a work placement. However 14% of employers had, either at the end of the placement or once the pupil had finished their education.

Figure 7: Proportion of employers who have work placements for school pupils by sector, 2019

Base population: 2,652

Work inspiration activities

15% of employers engaged with educational institutions to offer work inspiration activities to students in the last 12 months.

Work inspiration activities include hosting site visits for students, talking to them about their careers or conducting activities such as mock interviews to improve their employability^[11]. These activities are offered to people at school, colleges and universities.

Larger employers are more likely to offer work inspiration activities, with 60% of employers with over 100 employees doing so (Figure 8).

Figure 8: Proportion of employers offering work inspiration activities, by establishment size

Base population: 2,652

Employers in the ‘Education’ and ‘Public administration’ sectors are most likely to offer work inspiration activities, with respectively 39% and 31% of employers doing so. The sectors least likely to offer these activities are ‘Construction’ (6%) and ‘Hotels and restaurants’ (8%).

DYW Regional Groups

3% of employers engaged with their DYW Regional Group over the last 12 months.

14% of employers are aware of a DYW Regional Group. This means that around a fifth of employers who are aware of a DYW Regional Group have engaged with it. Larger employers are more likely to be aware of and to have engaged with a DYW Regional Group.

Employers who have engaged with a DYW Regional Group are more likely to have undertaken work inspiration activities.

Employers who are aware and have engaged with their local DYW Regional Group are more likely to have offered work inspiration activities: 72% of such employers, compared to 15% of all employers.

Figure 9 shows the percentage of employers who are doing work inspiration activities by awareness and engagement with DYW Regional Groups. 24% of employers who have heard of and not engaged with DYW Regional Groups have done work inspiration activities; 12% of employers who have neither heard of nor engaged with DYW Regional Groups have done such activities^[12].

Figure 9: Employers doing work inspiration activities by interaction with DYW Regional Groups

Base population: 2,652

Employers who are aware and have engaged with their local DYW Regional Group are also more likely to have offered work placements: 84% of such employers, compared to 36% of all employers.

Employer collaboration^[13] is also more common among employers who have engaged with their local DYW Regional Group: 33% compared to 14% of all employers^[14]. Employer collaboration is also more common in larger employers and among the public and voluntary sectors.  Encouraging employer collaboration is included in the remit of some DYW Regional Groups.