We wanted to write to you in our role as Scotland’s business leaders and on behalf of our networks of thousands of Scottish employers to reassure you of our commitment and support no matter what path you follow.

 As employers we recognise the challenges you have faced over the last two years and take great confidence in the ingenuity and resilience shown to overcome them.

We want to reassure you that we recognise and value your qualifications as much as any other year and that the skills you have developed, and will continue to develop, will play a crucial role in ensuring a bright future for businesses in Scotland and our economy.

 We are committed to creating job opportunities for you so that you can have a positive future. Scotland is fortunate in having a wide range of industries offering many exciting jobs for you to consider for your future career. There are lots of industries continuing to grow and new ones emerging which offer opportunities across all of Scotland. Employers will continue to need young people with fresh ideas and experience to get involved and work together with us.

We recognise there are many different high quality pathways available as you take your next steps and we stand ready to help you take advantage of opportunities to help realise your full potential. We encourage you to be curious, explore all available opportunities, look at different sectors and what they can offer and take the time needed to consider the decisions that will support your future careers.

Signed

Sandy Begbie CBE, CEO, Scottish Financial Enterprise

Marc Crothall, CEO, Scottish Tourism Alliance

Damien Yeates, CEO, Skills Development Scotland

James Withers, CEO, Scotland Food and Drink

Dr Liz Barron-Majerik, Director, LANTRA

Lee Ann Panglea, Head of CIPD Scotland and Northern Ireland, CIPD

Tracy Black, Director Scotland, CBI

Fiona Hodgson, CEO, SNIPEF Training Services

David Lonsdale, Director, Scottish Retail Consortium

Mark Kent, CEO, Scotch Whisky Association

Martin Crewe, Director, Barnardo’s

Liz Cameron, CEO, Scottish Chambers of Commerce

Sara Thiam, CEO, Scottish Council for Development and Industry

Paul Carberry, Director for Scotland, Action for Children

Iain MacRitchie, Founder and Chair, MCR Pathways

Anne Wexelstein, Director for Scotland, Career Ready

Celia Tennant, Chief Executive, Inspiring Scotland

 We all support the ambition of the Young Person’s Guarantee and its commitment to support every young person aged between 16 and 24, will have the opportunity of a job, apprenticeship, further or higher education, training programme or volunteering.

 Wishing you the very best of luck with your next steps.

 The School Leavers Toolkit, an information resource to support young people as they transition into the post-school world, is now live.

The Young Person’s Guarantee School Leavers Toolkit supports young people as they start out in their transition to the post-school world.

There’s lots of information available and we know from that it can be challenging for young people to find the practical life advice they need, when they need it.

The Toolkit covers a range of topics including mental well-being, work and pay, finances, moving out and housing options, community engagement and young people’s rights.

Find it at www.myworldofwork.co.uk/schoolleaverstoolkit
 

STEM West is back!

Our flagship 2022 STEM West event will return on 21st-22nd November at West College Scotland, Clydebank campus.

This event is there to help to inspire young people to choose STEM subjects at school and have employers showcase their industry. When we last held this physically back in 2019, we had over 500 young people attend across the 2 days from schools across our 4 Local Authority areas.

If you are an employer who is interested in showcasing your company and can bring along something interactive or hands on for S3-S4 pupils to engage with over the 2 days then please let us know. Even if you can only attend one of the days, it would be great to still have you come!

Interested in showcasing at STEM West 2022? Email us at info@dywwest.co.uk by 26^th August 2022 

We were delighted to host, in partnership with Howden, an in-person event to celebrate International Women in Engineering Day 2022! 

This event was designed and planned with Howden’s ‘Bright Futures’ initiative which was created to champion diversity, fairness and equality of opportunity and build a positive and enduring legacy in the communities local to their site, encouraging more young women and girls to take up engineering careers

During the event, the young females had the opportunity to hear from Howden’s female engineers, as well as taking a tour of their manufacturing factory and got involved in some interactive STEM activities.

We recently supported West College Scotland’s Hair, Beauty & Make Up Artistry team plan and host an event across all 3 campuses which had a focus on the Hair, Beauty & Make Up Artistry industry to inspire young people to think about subject choices/ future career options within that sector. The young people learned skills such as Beauty which covered Nail Art and Hand Massage Techniques, Make up Artistry which involved Specialist Make up Effects for Film and TV and Hair skills which covered many different styling skills.

This went out to all S1 pupils within our area where we had 72 young people in total attend the events at our Paisley and Clydebank campus' with another 36 due to attend the final event at our Greenock campus in the new term.

Many of the pupils left with a new positive outlook of the industry with the hope to attend college in the future.

Thank you to all of the college staff and students who hosted the brilliant sessions!

We had a brilliant day at "Business Matters in Renfrewshire" networking event at The Lagoon, in Paisley last week.

It was great to be back at an in person networking event meeting lots of lovely people. We even managed to attend a few of the brilliant seminars throughout the day

Thank you to everyone who took the time to speak with us.

Here's to next year! 
 

One of our Climate Heroes, Rachel Moir, Head of Skills at the Manufacturing Skills Academy, was matched to Clydebank High School and spent time in the school working with S3 Geography pupils. 

Rachel has been supporting Clydebank High School's climate leaders and Eco School pupils in moving forward with their COP26 legacy to reduce waste in the school.

Rachel delivered a four-week skills based program developing Employability Skills, with a focus on the future of jobs in Scotland within the Renewable and Green Sectors.

Staff at the school said, "Rachel has been brilliant at offering her experience in waste management and her skills in leading change. The pupils are currently working on a Waste Audit. This will help them to discover how much waste is being produced across the school and the type of waste. Our next step will be to look at solutions to reduce this waste".

Are you interested in becoming a Climate Hero?

Email: info@dywwest.co.uk for more details or visit the My Climate Path website

The Young Person’s Guarantee aims to ensure that within two years every 16-24 year old in Scotland has access to a work or learning opportunity.

The impact of the pandemic on employers and young people alongside a changing labour market means that there’s never been a more important time to consider young talent within the workforce.

Over 500 employers from all industries and of all sizes have already signed up to support the Guarantee, however we need more.

This webinar will help employers involved in addressing Net Zero find out how the Young Person’s Guarantee makes it easier for young people and employers to connect, and how to get involved. 

Delivered by the Scottish Government and Skills Development Scotland (SDS) the webinar includes:

•    An overview of the Young Person’s Guarantee, the 5 asks of employers, benefits to you, and how to sign up
•    Examples from employers on how they’ve got involved with creating opportunities for young people
•    Information from SDS on climate emergency action plan, apprenticeships and business support

The event will be hosted and introduced by Jennifer Tempany, Co-founder of Fuel Change.

The webinar takes place Wednesday 27 April, 10am. 

More details and sign up

This month marks over 500 employers signed up to the Young Person’s Guarantee! This is a brilliant milestone to have reached and we would like to thank every employer who has already signed up to support YPG.

If you have signed up to YPG you could:

• Announce that you are a committed Young Person Guarantee employer and why you signed up. Ready to use comms messaging and supporting visual
• Share case studies and tell the story of the types of opportunities you offer young people via the 5 Asks and the benefits of being a Young Person’s Guarantee employer
• Please use #YPGuarantee and #MyYPGuaranteeStory on social media posts

If your organisation is taking on apprentices, utilising kickstart or supporting schools now or you plan to in the future, then please sign up to the Young Person’s Guarantee. The YPG is a commitment to bring together employers, partners and young people.  We already have a great list of employers who have joined the YPG and each of them are doing 1 or more of the following 5 asks:

• To prepare young people for the world of work through engaging with education, work experience and work-based learning opportunities
• Engage with and provide opportunities to young people who face barriers to work
• Create apprenticeships, training and upskilling opportunities for young people
• Create jobs and opportunities for young people
• Create an inclusive workplace to enable young people to meet their potential

Are you interested in joining the YPG?

View the guide to the YPG - here
View the YPG proforma, where employers can sign up - here

To discuss how your organisation can support the YPG please contact us at info@dywwest.co.uk

To support YPG through your internal comms channels you can access the campaign toolkit to share with young people and their parents and carers about the Young Person’s Guarantee.

#YPG | #YPGuarantee | #YoungPersonsGuarantee

The ambition of the Young Person’s Guarantee is that within two years every young person in Scotland aged 16-24 will have the opportunity of a job, apprenticeship, further or higher education, training programme or volunteering.

The impact of the pandemic on employers and young people alongside a challenging labour market means that there has never been a more important time to consider how young talent can benefit your organisation.

This webinar will help employers involved in addressing the Climate Emergency find out why it makes it easier for young people and employers to connect, and how to get involved.

Delivered by the Scottish Government and Skills Development Scotland the webinar includes:

• an overview of the Young Person’s Guarantee, the 5 asks of employers and how to sign up
• examples from employers on how they’ve got involved
• Climate Emergency information from SDS and information on apprenticeships and business support

The event will be hosted and introduced by Fuel Change.

The webinar takes place Wednesday 16 March, 10am

Register Here