Developing the Young Workforce in Argyll & Bute – connecting employers with our young people to create job opportunities this summer and beyond
‘The Young Persons Guarantee brings together employers, partners and young people and aims to connect every 16- to 24-year old in Scotland to an opportunity. Scott McKinnon, DYW Argyll & Bute Lead’
Helping young people bridge the gap more easily between full-time education and employment was the shared goal for the gathering of Argyll-based organisations who converged in Dunoon on Friday May 19, for a conference in the town’s Queens Hall.
Jane MacLeod, HM lord-lieutenant in Argyll and Bute, but leading the the on-stage keynote speakers in her capacity as DYW’s regional chairperson, introduced David Cameron, educational consultant and son of Campbeltown, during the morning.
He told those gathered how he remembered school in 1950s Kintyre and constant note-taking and repetition, and spoke of the dramatic changes in the educational landscape since then.
He warned that ‘employability’ should not be treated like a “bolt-on” but an integral part of the secondary educational framework.
He added: “Answers don’t come from the soloist, but from the choir, and that is why we have to look for the kind of collaboration we have here today.”
Another speaker, Klaus Mayer, of Education Scotland, told the conference: “It is not that young people are not being taught the skills in schools, it is that the skills they are learning need to be valued.
“We have a good curriculum in Scotland, with a whole section on skills, but it is also about having young people practise learned skills in a real-world context.”
A recurring note of regret within the conversations held on the day, both in the voices from the podium and in the conversations and workshops on the venue floor, was that so many year groups in Argyll and Bute had the feeling that for them it was ‘university or nothing’.
Thankfully, with much stronger engagement between educational influences such as Developing the Young Workforce, Skills Development Scotland, and Argyll and Butebased employers, the paths for young people to access apprenticeship options are now more varied - and highly sought-after - by and for both learners and employers in the region.
Scott Mackinnon, DYW’s regional lead for Argyll and Bute, presented a workshop on DYW’s Young Person’s Guarantee during Friday afternoon.
He said: “This important policy brings together employers, partners and young people and aims to connect every 16- to 24-year old in Scotland to an opportunity.
“This could be a job, apprenticeship, further or higher education, training, volunteering - or an enterprise opportunity.”
Elsewhere, Colin Buchanan and Suzie MacRae from SDS presented a workshop on apprenticeship options in Argyll and Bute as part of the Highlands and Islands.
They said: “An apprenticeship is valued as highly as a degree.
“We find now that in areas like accountancy, employers are looking to steal a march by bringing talent on board to train, straight out of education, as used to happen.”
Argyll and Bute Council’s Policy Lead for Education, Councillor Yvonne McNeilly, said: “We are committed to developing a broader curriculum offer, to augment current opportunities with a range of wider achievement awards and accreditations.
“The inaugural Developing the Young Workforce Conference allows key partners to consider ways they can work together to broaden young peoples’ horizons and raise their aspirations, whilst creating their own future workforce and giving back to the local community.”