Initiatives aimed at supporting young people鈥檚 future career ambitions across 嫩草影院 are continuing to bear fruit.
At today鈥檚 (28 August) meeting of the Community Services committee, councillors heard about the strong progress which is being made thanks to the efforts of 嫩草影院鈥檚 Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) team.
The key objective is to ensure young people develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the world of work by connecting them and their schools with employers, and through supporting the development and implementation of the Employability curriculum in schools.
Thanks to the work of DYW School Co-ordinators, DYW 嫩草影院 has increased engagement with young people by 24% and implemented an additional 190 DYW-related activities in 2024-2025.
The work of DYW covers a range of areas: school-employer partnerships; work placements; the employability curriculum in schools; employability events in schools; meeting the needs of vulnerable young people; supporting young people into 鈥 and tracking their progress in 鈥 positive destinations; progressing the Young Person鈥檚 Guarantee/DYW Pledge; and supporting employers to make the right offers for our young people.
Support on offer includes:
- The Young Person鈥檚 Guarantee (YPG) Framework encourages employers to pledge their support to Scotland鈥檚 young people through opportunities such as volunteering, work experience, apprenticeships/training and a commitment to Fair Work principles. Since 2023, DYW has been liaising with employers in relation to the YPG and has supported 17 employers to engage fully with the programme
- DYW works in partnership with UHI Argyll and Skills Development Scotland to provide support to employers to recruit young people into Foundation and Modern Apprenticeships. In 2024-25, Modern Apprenticeship accreditation rose to 39 from 29 in 2023-24 and Foundation Apprenticeship accreditation rose to 80 from 62 in 2023- 24.
- DYW works closely with schools to identify and support young people with the greatest barriers to entering the world of work. In 2024-2025, DYW have supported a total of 243 young people identified as disengaged or vulnerable to build the skills they need to succeed in the world of work through participation in activities including careers events, workplace visits, job application and interview skills sessions, volunteering opportunities and entrepreneurship activities. This constitutes an increase of 90 young people from 2023-24
- Developing Skills for Life and Work activities include careers fairs, skills-development sessions and events focusing on a particular area of employment or industry
- Flexible Learning Plans (FLPs) create a bespoke curricular plan for young people experiencing problems with school engagement. An FLP involves a young person spending part of each week on placement with a partner employer which matches their interests. For the other part of the week, the young person is in school focusing on a specific and targeted group of qualifications and accreditations. Across all secondary schools in 嫩草影院 in 2024-2025, there were 50 FLPs in place, an increase of 17 on 2023-2024.
Councillor Audrey Forrest, Policy Lead for Education, said: 鈥淭he work of DYW is central to ensuring 嫩草影院鈥檚 young people achieve positive, fulfilling destinations on leaving school which contribute to a thriving economy and society.
鈥淭he team鈥檚 contribution is vital in securing and sustaining 嫩草影院 a position in the leading 10 Scottish Local Authorities with regards to the Annual Participation Measure, in which we place ninth out of 32 in the period April 2023 to March 2024.
鈥淲e鈥檙e fully aware of the considerable challenges facing young people leaving school at this time, and it鈥檚 clear to see how much valuable work our DYW team and partners are carrying out to deliver support which meets their needs.
鈥淗owever, we recognise that we must continue to develop and enhance our activities in the light of data which shows decreases in positive destinations and participation, and the risk that presents to young people鈥檚 prospects.鈥
