The DYW network are delighted to be welcoming the new year with our new Virtual Careers campaign 'New Year First Career'!

About

We had initially planned to launch virtual careers events on the week beginning 25th January. However, due to COVID-19 restrictions, we have decided to delay the launch of these until pupils are back in school and can receive the full benefits of the events. With that in mind, we're making the accompanying resources available for educators on Monday, 25th January to support them during the lockdown period. These resources are focused around 'Tasty Careers', 'Healthy Careers' and 'Energising Careers'.

Once the resource packs are made available on the 25th, recipients will be able to access a series of career inspiration films which will be hosted on the DYW Scot website. These films will be complementary to the resources and toolkits and would serve as the basis of school activity, with local content such as class projects and live Q&A sessions being added in, for example.

What are the aims for the New Year First Career campaign?

• To raise awareness of the diversity of careers in the food & drink, healthcare and energy sectors as well as how to access them
• To enable young people to think about their subject choices in relation to pathways and make informed decisions
• To support educators and parents to understand how to support their young people on their journeys

Get Involved

Schools who wish to deliver the resources during w/c 25th January are encouraged to post content on social media using the hashtag #DYWVirtual and tagging their local regional group (@DYWWEST) and DYW Scot (@DYWScot).

For more information, don't hesitate to get in touch with us! You can contact our Digital Marketing & Events Executive, Fraser, at fraser.woods@dywwest.co.uk.

Over the course of this week, keep an eye on our socials as we've got some excellent content in store for #STEMWest2020 from the West Region's most amazing employers!

Here's who you can expect to hear from:

• Advanced Forming Research Centre
• Babcock
• Diodes
• Institute of Civil Engineers
• Doosan
• Kier Group
• Lantra
• National Manufacturing Institute Scotland
• Scottish Leather Group
• Thermo Fisher Scientific
• Aggreko
• Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park
• J.P. Morgan
• Royal Bank of Scotland

Tune in Monday-Thursday this week to hear more about apprenticeships, careers, routes into employment, skills, qualities & qualifications as well as some hands-on activities and experiments and much more!

If you want to get involved on social media, just use the hashtag #STEMWest2020 and tag us!

DYW West Socials

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DYWWestRegion/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dyw_west/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DYWWEST

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dywwest

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI49Ixlg_V63JDp9nRD8-Mg

DYW West Newsletter

The first organisations to back the £60 million Young Person’s Guarantee have been announced by Economy Secretary Fiona Hyslop. 

In a collective effort to help young people, the Scottish Government has been joined by SSE, Capgemini, NHS Lothian, Scottish Water and Standard Life Aberdeen in the commitment to ensure everyone aged between 16 and 24 has the opportunity of work, education or training.

The Guarantee aims to give all young people in Scotland the chance to succeed despite the economic impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19)

Organisations backing the Guarantee make five pledges to help young people at this critical time:

• prepare young people for the world of work through work experience, volunteering and work-based learning opportunities
• engage with and provide opportunities to young people who face barriers to work
• create work-based learning, training and upskilling opportunities for young people
• create jobs and opportunities for young people through apprenticeships, paid internships and work experience
• create an inclusive workplace to support learning and enable young people to meet their potential

Economy Secretary Fiona Hyslop said:

“The pandemic is having a disproportionate economic effect on our young people, reducing job opportunities just as they are starting out on their careers. I am delighted to be launching the Young Person’s Guarantee today to help ensure their prospects are not permanently damaged

“I want to thank the early trailblazers who have backed our ambitious initiative and recognise the importance of supporting our young people.

“The leadership of employers from across Scotland and from all sectors will be key in providing the opportunities that will make this Guarantee a success.  This employer leadership will build on our strong track record of tackling youth unemployment through our industry-led Youth Employment Strategy – Developing the Young Workforce.   

“We are encouraging employers to come forward and join what is a crucial intervention to ensure that we capture the potential of our young people and prevent coronavirus (COVID-19) leaving a lasting impact on the employment opportunities of our future workforce.

“I want Scotland’s young people to know we are right behind you, we want you to be successful and we will do everything we can to give you the opportunities you need.”

Sandy Begbie, who led the Edinburgh Guarantee said:  “In the spring, I was delighted to be asked to develop a strategy to establish a Young Person Guarantee for all 16 to 24-year-olds in Scotland.  The ambition is clear, I want every one person who is unemployed to be given an opportunity for a job, apprenticeship, education, training or volunteering.  I strongly believe we must act now and decisively, our young people are an asset and a credit to Scotland.”

Background:

Further information on the Young Person’s Guarantee is available on the www.youngpersonsguarantee.scot website.

The Young Person’s Guarantee was one of the main recommendations of the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery.

The £60 million Young Person’s Guarantee is part of a total of £100 million for employment support and training announced by the Scottish Government to tackle employment challenges. £10 million of this will be used to support a range of measures to recruit and retain apprentices.

Further temporary measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 came into effect from Friday, 9^th October and eligible businesses can now apply for grants from the Coronavirus Restrictions Fund via their local authority.

The Scottish Government have set aside up to £40 million to support employees and businesses impacted by these restrictions as part of their commitment to sustainable and inclusive growth and the Coronavirus (COVID-19): fair work statement.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the business closure fund you must be a hospitality or other business required by law to close (except for takeaway) under these new restrictions.

To be eligible for the discretionary business hardship fund you must be:

• a hospitality business and some gyms, required by the regulations to operate in a restricted way
• a producer/wholesale business based in Scotland supplying primarily short-life goods or produce to hospitality businesses required by the regulations to close or operate in a restricted way and able to evidence a 25% reduction in turnover during the brake period

If your business operates multiple premises you can apply for grants for each premise, applying only once to the local authority in which your business is headquartered. The maximum any one business can receive will be restricted, regardless of the number of premises: the upper limit for the business closure fund is £15,000; the upper limit for business hardship fund is £10,000.

Your businesses must have been open and trading before 9 October.

You must have a business bank account. This is the account your grant will be paid into if your application is successful.

Your business premises must be registered for Non-Domestic rates. Businesses that pay rates through their landlords rather than directly to a Council are eligible to apply (evidence to be provided through copy of lease agreement). 

Businesses which have breached wider COVID regulations/requirements prior to local restrictions are not eligible to apply. 

Full eligibility details

How to Apply

The Scottish Government are working with local authorities to prepare and finalise all the administrative arrangements required to ensure efficient and effective application, processing, payment and appeal arrangements -  and access to the information and advice you may need.

Applications will close on Tuesday, 3^rd November at 5pm.

Full application details

Relevant local authority websites:

East Renfrewshire

Renfrewshire

West Dunbartonshire

Inverclyde

Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) 21 regional groups are launching an equalities focused social media campaign and week of events across Scotland starting on w/c Monday, 16th November 2020. The week-long campaign will be aimed at employers, parents and young people that promotes, illustrates and celebrates diversity and inclusion in the workplace and hopes to demonstrate the range of support available for young job seekers and employers.

Building on last year’s #AJobForEverybody campaign we will be introducing a new feature – #MySkillsMakeMe which aims to showcase transferable skills and value through a diverse workplace.

The week will also see a series of events including a live event: ‘Strengthening Diversity through Inclusion’ with 3 In Consulting and several webisodes from the DWP featuring Disability Confident and the return of ‘Play Your Cards Right!’ with Sue Livermore, (from Dumfries & Galloway College).

We would love for you to get involved and hear from individuals across your organisation who may have faced some form of challenge or barrier through their journey from education to where they are now.

If you and your colleagues would like to participate you can:

• Download and print the #MySkillsMakeMe template below. Complete your sign and then uploaded to your social media using the #AJobForEverybody and #MySkillsMakeMe as well as tagging @DYWWEST throughout the week of 16th November 2020.
• Write a brief case study and send to fraser.woods@dywwest.co.uk to share across the DYW West network. You can simply tweet any resource, stories or links that your organisation may already hold using the relevant hashtags and tagging @DYWWEST.

If you would like any information on how you can get involved, please email fraser.woods@dywwest.co.uk.

Every year for the last 3 years, over 500 school pupils have travelled to West College Scotland’s Clydebank campus in November to talk to employers about how they can take their first steps in a career in STEM.

STEM West is Developing the Young Workforce West Region’s flagship annual event. As you can imagine, this year we won’t be able to host it in person given the current climate. So, with that in mind, we’ve decided to put together a series of videos, each one focused on each aspect of STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths. These videos would be released on W/C 23^rd November over 4 days (Monday-Thursday).

Our aim is to make STEM West as relevant and insightful as always and to do that we need your help! We’re looking for employers to get involved with the video series we’re creating and educate young people on STEM careers by providing them with more information on how they can start their career in a STEM industry.

If your business comes under one of the STEM categories, we’d love for you to contribute by talking a bit about what your business does, what skills, qualities & qualifications a young person might need to work there, typical routes into employment (i.e. apprenticeships etc) and what types of opportunities you may currently have or will have in the future. Your segment could be made more engaging by offering to do an activity or demonstration that could be easily followed along in a classroom!

Video Specifications:

• We’re aiming for these employer segments to last 7-9 minutes
• Content does not need to be professionally shot, iPhone footage is fine as long as sound quality is good enough and it’s shot in landscape mode
• Pre-existing company footage would be excellent (could be on-site footage or interview footage for example)

In short, if you know someone in your organisation that you think would be good in front of camera, we’d love to hear what they have to say about the topics mentioned before: company bio, skills & qualities, routes into employment, qualifications, opportunity types and, if possible, an activity or demonstration.

We appreciate that many of you may still be working from home without access to company premises but if you have pre-existing content that’s relevant then you could still contribute! It would allow your business to be showcased in every school we support across our 4 Local Authority Areas and would be a great way to get your name out to all schools and highlight career options that are available.

Our main audience is S3/S4 but it can sometimes be slightly younger or older. If you have content that would be suitable for this age group then please let us know.

We would request that all video content be provided by October 31^st to allow sufficient editing time prior to video release. Those interested, please email fraser.woods@dywwest.co.uk!

Spread The Word

We’re putting together a campaign pack to help you spread the STEM word across social media. This pack will include example social media posts & graphics for each individual video!

If you want to help get the word out then please contact fraser.woods@dywwest.co.uk to get your campaign pack.

The University of Strathclyde Engineering Academy offers an alternative route into an Engineering degree. The first year is an enhanced HNC programme which is taught at one of seven partner colleges and allows for a direct transfer into a variety of degree programmes.

After your first year is completed, you may transfer into a variety of degree courses in one of the following departments:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Chemical & Process Engineering
• Civil & Environmental Engineering
• Design, Manufacture, & Engineering Management
• Electronic & Electrical Engineering
• Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
• Naval Architecture, Ocean & Marine Engineering

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

You will be required to have four Highers at BBBB which must include Maths and Physics. Higher Chemistry is also required for entry to Chemical Engineering and for entry to Biomedical Engineering you will need to have Higher Biology or Human biology.

Certain applicants may be eligible for a lower offer, minimum entry requirements are BBCC.

HOW TO APPLY

Applications should be made via UCAS, the UCAS admissions code is oBRT, there is no need to complete a separate application for the HNC programme delivered within the college.

Michael Spiers studied Mechanical Engineering with Materials Engineering via the Engineering Academy, here’s what he had to say:

“I had not achieved what I would have hoped in my Higher Maths and Physics. This was a big blow to my aspirations of studying Mechanical Engineering and the University of Strathclyde as the BEng course stipulated that an A in these subjects was a must. The Engineering Academy presented an alternative route to the highly sought after MAE department at Strathclyde that I could pursue. On top of this, the opportunity to work in industry throughout the degree appealed to me. The Engineering Academy looked like the place to be in terms of transitioning smoothly from full-time education to a career in the sector.”

Michael is now working with GeoSea as an offshore Project Engineer based in Belgium.

For more information, see attached documents and visit https://www.strath.ac.uk/engineering/studywithus/engineeringacademy/

The UK Government have introduced a new Kickstart Scheme that provides funding to employers to create new 6-month paid work placements for young people (aged 16-24) who are currently on Universal Credit.

The Kickstart Scheme aims to create new, fully funded jobs across the UK. Funding will cover:

• 100% of the relevant National Minimum Wage for 25 hours per week (giving employers the option to top up these payments)
• The associated employer National Insurance contributions
• Employer minimum automatic enrolment contributions

There will be extra funding to help young people move into sustained employment after they’ve completed their 6-month placement under the Scheme.

The Kickstart scheme was announced in July as part of the Chancellor’s Plan for Jobs, a package to support youth unemployment, which includes tripling the number of traineeships, incentivising employers to hire more apprentices through a £2,000 payment to employers for every apprentice they hire under the age of 25 and investing in our National Careers Service so people can receive bespoke advice on training and work.

Kickstart Scheme: https://jobhelp.campaign.gov.uk/kickstart/

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir8OkmPy9YA&feature=youtu.be

Learn: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/kickstart-scheme

Apply: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-a-grant-through-the-kickstart-scheme

Giving every young person the chance to succeed.

The Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Fiona Hyslop MSP, has announced further details on how the Youth Guarantee will give young people the chance to succeed despite the economic impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19).  Today’s announcement has confirmed additional investment for Developing the Young Workforce Regional Groups to support the delivery of the Youth Guarantee including strengthening our offer in the senior phase and ensuring those furthest from the labour market can access the appropriate support.

The Scottish Government’s £60 million support for the guarantee, will ensure every young person has the opportunity of work, education or training, with £10 million additional funding for DYW.

An implementation plan written by Sandy Begbie has been published today. The report’s recommendations include:

• a simplification of the employability landscape so that greater impact can be achieved. This work to be co-designed with young people
• a better alignment of education provision with the needs of employers
• work to introduce an incentive model where government pays 50% of wages for young people who need the most help
• early work to identify opportunities with employers in some least-impacted sectors, including financial services, utilities and life sciences
• a call for the public sector to create more opportunities for young people
• businesses who would not normally have taken an apprentice full-time come to consider sharing an apprentice with other employers.

Rob Woodward, Chair of the Employers’ Forum said: “Today’s announcement gives strong endorsement for the future of DYW and highlights that Scottish Ministers are listening to employers and recognise the valuable insights from across the DYW network. As a network, we will respond to this challenge to ensure that young people have the best possible support and preparation for entering the labour market”.

“We will work closely with our partners including local authorities, employers and SDS to ensure that this additional investment has the maximum impact. I encourage all employers to support our young people at this difficult time by supporting their local DYW Regional Group”

The report can be found here - https://www.gov.scot/isbn/978180004037

The annual #NoWrongPath campaign grows from strength to strength every year. We were delighted to collaborate with big names such as NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, Doosan Babcock, NMIS and more! We're determined to bring inspiring stories from industry professionals every year on the week of exam results. These individuals are a testament to the fact that your exam results aren't the defining factor in your future career. While it would be preferable to get the results you're looking for, you can still achieve your career goals no matter the circumstance. Visit https://www.nowrongpath.scot/ for more information.

Don't just take our word for it, hear from them yourselves:

Andrew Bowman | DYW West Chair

Andrew Bowman took an unconventional path to success. Listen to him talk about his experiences running his own business, dipping in and out of university and more!

Andrew Colquhoun | Doosan Babcock CEO

Andrew Colquhoun worked his way up from apprentice to CEO of a global company and won the ROCCO's Business Leader of the Year Award in 2019. Listen to the story of how he rose to the top at Doosan Babcock.

Mandy Holley | NHS Health Visitor

Mandy is a Health Visitor with the NHS and her story is of a path less travelled, but she managed to find success and was able to use her life experiences to get to where she is today.

Philip Briscoe | European Circuits Ltd Sales Manager

Philip's sales journey started 25 years ago, but it wasn't what he expected to be doing in his career. Find out how he arrived at his current role at European Circuits.

Stewart McKinlay | NMIS Associate Director

Stewart's dreams of becoming a pilot were dashed when he found out he was short-sighted. Find out how he faired at university and his journey towards becoming the Associate Director at NMIS (National Manufacturing Institution Scotland).

We'd like to extend our thanks to everyone who contributed this year, DYW as a whole are extremely grateful for the number of people who got involved. Until next year!