‘Skills Academy has shown me there is no wrong path into education and finding a career’
As we find ourselves in what is predicted to be the deepest recession in living memory, it’s important that we take time to consider our younger generation who will be severely impacted when it comes to finding employment.
Just last month, the Scottish Government announced that £10 million of funding has been set aside to support Scottish apprenticeships as we expect to see a critical shortage of vocational and training opportunities. Whilst a welcome contribution, it is a sign of the catastrophic impact Covid-19 will have on the future workforce.
At the age of 33 with a teenager and a four-year
old son to support, I never expected to find myself back in education or quite frankly, embarking on a new career.
Throughout my late teens and early 20s, I had exhausted looking for an apprenticeship which even back then felt difficult to secure. At the time, university and college wasn’t an option for me, so – like many people – I learned a trade to finally become a tiler working for a specialist bathroom company.
Although it paid the bills, I didn’t get a true sense of job satisfaction. I thought hard about going back to college but knowing there was a guaranteed job at the end made in an easy decision.
In partnership with West College Scotland, AC Whyte’s Skills Academy is a unique programme that offers students – we are referred to as Akademos – an opportunity to gain a qualification, train as an external wall insulation installer and, the most critical part, secure a job with the firm on completion.
After being accepted on to the programme, it turned out to be the opportunity that I had been waiting for my entire working life. Being given a platform to refresh my skillset, excel in academic studies and guarantee a paycheck at the end was the chance I had needed when I left school, but finding it later in life has proved to be just as rewarding.
As clichéd as it sounds, AC Whyte’s Skills Academy has given me a sense of purpose again and has underlined that there really is no wrong path into education and finding a career. Being part of a family-run business that has its people – from Akademos to directors – at the heart has given me a feeling of belonging that I’ve never felt in a workplace before.
As the exam results prompted a mass of stories from people who have gone on to achieve incredible career successes and share their #Nowrongpath story – an initiative led by Developing the Young Workforce Glasgow – it really highlights that it’s never too late to get to where you want to be.
I’ve encouraged my friends to consider the Skills Academy programme and I hope as we move into a new way of living, more organisations will adopt similar partnerships and I hope decision makers realise its value.