Help for young people heading into world of work

Jobs, further education and apprenticeship opportunities are being created for young people across South Lanarkshire.

Three key programmes are delivering a range of support to school pupils in the senior phase and post-school up to age 19 (26 if care experienced).

They are helping develop and achieve the skills, experience, and qualifications necessary to progress to positive and sustained post-school destinations.

Delivered by South Lanarkshire Council’s Youth Employability Services, the three programmes are called Aspire, GradU8 and Foundation Apprenticeships.

Aspire helps support vulnerable young people by providing targeted employability support; GradU8 gives young people an opportunity to study towards a vocational qualification in an area of work that they may wish to pursue and Foundation Apprenticeships allow young people to gain valuable, real-world work experience while they are still at school.

Members of the Education Resources Committee recently heard of the successes of the programmes.

Chairwoman of the committee, Councillor Katy Loudon, told the Reformer:“It was really encouraging to hear how well these programmes are delivering positive outcomes for so many of our young people.

“As a council we recognise that every young person is an individual and, as such, we need to ensure that there are opportunities for them to progress in a variety of ways. Of course the global pandemic has been a significant challenge for the delivery of the programmes, but the service has worked hard to ensure that support has continued.

“A great deal of revised planning, risk assessments and partnership working was required to ensure that programmes could be delivered safely and meet the needs of young people.

“This has been possible due to the positive partnership relations between the service, schools and partners including local colleges and Skills Development Scotland.”

The courses are being delivered by South Lanarkshire College, New College Lanarkshire and First Steps Rural Connections in Lanark.