GirlsGetSet Project with Baker Hughes
GirlsGetSet Project with Baker Hughes
Within Baker Hughes, throughout June, volunteers at sites across the UK participated in the relaunched GirlsGetSet project, which aims to encourage and support girls who are interested in a future in STEM careers.
GirlsGetSet was relaunched in 2023 in partnership with GE Healthcare and GE Vernova, with Subsea and Surface Pressure Systems sites in Bristol, Newcastle and Montrose welcoming pupils from a number of local schools for a series of wrap up celebration events.
Find out more about the project here: https://zurl.co/FB
Here is a quote from Holly Donald, Project Manager, at Baker Hughes: “We held successful mentoring activities in Montrose Academy April/May, during which groups of girls were tasked with investigating the carbon footprint of their schools and strategies to reduce going forward. Following their weekly sessions, they came onsite to do presentations of their projects – it was amazing.”
SDS Apprenticeship Evening
SDS Apprenticeship Evening
On the 8th of March, DYW Tay Cities attended an Apprenticeship Evening organisied by Skills Development Scotland. This event was organised to promote apprenticeships during Scottish Apprenticeship Week. Between 6pm-8pm, young people aged 16-24 were invited to come along to learn about apprenticeships and talk to local employers about apprenticeship vacancies. Over 100 young people was in attendance at this event
The Apprentice Ambassadors attended to present about what the Apprentice Ambassador project involved, and a couple of the Apprentice Ambassadors spoke about their own apprenticeship journeys and why they have succeeded in their career through choosing an apprenticeship. In attendance was: Lucy Jobson - Business Management Graduate Apprentice (project manager), Zeinab Bakir - Business Management Graduate Apprentice, Neave Doig - Learning and Development Modern Apprentice and Klaudia Filipiak - Business Admin Foundation Apprentice. This showed that there is good news stories from each of the apprenticeship frameworks in the apprenticeship family.
The young people was given the opportunity to engage with the employers at the event. They could ask them questions about careers or what an apprenticeship would be like with the company. The young people could hand the employer their CV and fill out application forms if they found the right vacancy for them. They also had the opportunity to talk to the Apprentice Ambassadors about the reality of being an apprentice and answer any questions they may have.
An Insight into Developing the Young Workforce Event
An Insight into Developing the Young Workforce Event
An Insight into DYW was hosted by the DYW Tay Cities team in order to bring together employers to learn more about the opportunities they can provide young people. The event was held on 17th January 2023 at the Apex Hotel.
Businesses who are already engaged with DYW and businesses who are interested in supporting young people were invited to attend and network on arrival then DYW Tay Cities delivered a presentation on the activities business can support, how to sign up to YPG and some of our successes over the last year.
Then a panel session with Q&A from the audience commenced. On the panel was Mark Fleming from Dundee City Council who discussed in further detail how businesses can support work experience placements. Lucinda Mason from Dundee & Angus College who discussed the apprenticeship programme and Susan Burgess & Jess Miller from MCR pathways who discussed mentoring.
The event saw success with attendance from around 30 people from 15 local business around the Tay Region.
There was some wonderful discussion around the challenges businesses can face when supporting young people and how they could be better supported by the DYW Team and Supporting agencies in order to deliver more opportunities for young people.
The event was a good use of time to encourage new businesses to engage with DYW through hearing about the varying different activities they can support whilst also getting to hear from businesses who are actively engaged and take on their suggestions. Businesses who are actively engaged found this a great event to share best practice with other businesses and share both challenges and successes.
Lucinda Mason - D&A College “It was great to meet lots of inspiring people this morning at the DYW networking event, and even better to listen to all the great ideas and questions floating around. Food for thought for sure. We need more of this going forward. These opportunities for collaboration are so helpful and can only help us to make even better decisions to support our young people!”
Scottish Minister Celebrates Hillcrest's Commitment To The Young Persons Guarantee
Scottish Minister Celebrates Hillcrest's Commitment To The Young Persons Guarantee
DYW Tay Cities attended the Minister's visit to Hillcrest Homes Dundee on Monday the 23rd of January to celebrate their Young Persons' Guarantee commitment.
Hillcrest has committed to the Young Person’s Guarantee and pledged to invest in a skilled workforce through preparing young people for the world of work and creating opportunities for those who face the most significant barriers.
Minister for Higher Education, Further Education, Youth Employment and Training Jamie Hepburn MSP, was able to meet and interact with the group of apprentices who work in a number of areas including IT, finance, maintenance, human resources and administration in Hillcrest Homes workforce.
Mr. Hepburn had the opportunity to hear from the apprentices about their journey so far and learn more about the future plans to develop the Young Person’s Guarantee. Mr Hepburn commented “It has been hugely encouraging to hear how the young people at Hillcrest are being given immense support in their roles".
Lesley Don, Hillcrest director of corporate services added “Young people are the future of businesses like ours and we need to do as much as we can to create an inclusive workplace that promotes opportunities for them to explore and succeed on their chosen paths.
“Over the last year, we have successfully recruited 10 new apprentices across our business, 30 school students have had work experience placements and three career ready students completed a four week internship. We have recruited a dedicated Apprenticeship Development Officer to ensure that we are delivering opportunities that meet the needs of young people and support them to be successful and experience positive outcomes.”
The Young Person’s Guarantee is a commitment to bring together employers, partners and young people. It 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 or volunteering. More than 500 Scottish employers have signed up to the Young Person’s Guarantee since it was launched.
Bahrain Visitors - Insight into DYW
BAHRAIN VISITORS - INSIGHT INTO DYW
We welcomed visitors from Bahrain; Ahmed Alkoofi who is the owner of Quality House Consultancy and Chief Vice president of the Education Committee at the Chamber of Commerce Bahrain and Ameera Almutawa, who is a Project Manager in Quality House Consultancy on the 13th of December, 2022. 
Lisa Laidlaw our Regional lead was delighted to share details of the national and local DYW offer and the impact our DYW employer led programme has in supporting young people develop skills and achieve positive destinations. Our visitors were interested in the partnerships we have developed and the opportunities that young people have to learn about the world of work.
Laura Rhoney, Chief Operating Officer at Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce explained how the DYW team and the Chamber work in close partnership to promote school employer activities and partnerships. Our visitors also learned about the Young Person's Guarantee and the benefits to employers committing to the 5 asks. Ahmed and Ameera were interested in the ways in which employers benefit from being involved with the DYW programme including the impact that working with young people at an early stage can have on their talent pipeline.
Our visitors enjoyed a visit to Grove Academy and met with Mr Hutton, Head Teacher and Jenna Lees, DYW School Coordinator. They were able to explain how DYW is integrated into the curriculum and how all young people are given the opportunity find the right individual career path. Our visitors were impressed to hear first hand from young people who attend Grove Academy about the benefits and impact of their experience and how work related learning opportunities have helped them on their learner journey and on their career pathway.
Our visitors enjoyed a visit to Grove Academy and met with Mr Hutton, Head Teacher and Jenna Lees, DYW School Coordinator. They were able to explain how DYW is integrated into the curriculum and how all young people are given the opportunity find the right individual career path. Our visitors were impressed to hear first hand from young people who attend Grove Academy about the benefits and impact of their experience and how work related learning opportunities have helped them on their learner journey and on their career pathway.
Carnoustie High School Business Breakfast
Carnoustie High School Business Breakfast
After a 2-year hiatus, Carnoustie High School sought to bring back their S6 business breakfast at the end of the 2021/22 school term. The plan was to invite professionals from businesses in the Tayside area, which represented as many different industries as possible, to speak to their S6 pupils about potential careers.
The event was also to support the Career Education Standard to allow for better connectivity and cooperation between education and the world or work. It was also hoped that by running this event young people would understand the expectations of employers and feel that they can make an achievable contribution to companies.
Around 88 pupils attended the business breakfast and had an enjoyable experience networking with businesses. 40 different guests from the world of work attended representing a variety of industries. The students had the opportunity to sit with the professionals and discuss potential careers, pathways and develop networking skills. As the event progressed, they had the chance to move around the tables and speak to all guests in attendance. This opportunity allowed them to identify and access support networks that may help them progress towards a positive destination beyond school.
Many of the businesses who attended provided young people with careers advice and their contact emails, to help them develop a professional network. This assisted the pupils in focussing on their plans for when they leave school. Pupils were able to learn first-hand about the world of work, job possibilities and learn more about the skills they will need for the future.
Through the event, employers also informed pupils first-hand about the relevance, growth and attractiveness of industry sectors, employment opportunities and progressive career options from the sectors they represented. They also assisted with the pupils’ readiness for transitioning into the world of work by informing them about recruitment procedures.
“I attended the S6 business breakfast at Carnoustie Hotel which brought employers and young people to one place to talk about the what’s next in their journey. The breakfast was an inspiration to attend, each table had one or two employers that were happy to share their personal and professional stories with the S6 Students, encouraging them to reach out and ask for help, with their career paths including asking for volunteering or work experience. There were nurses, doctors and pilots that attended, along with businesses such as Carnoustie Hotel, Angus Soft Fruits, Arbroath Football Club and Henderson Loggie. During the morning the students could move tables 3 times and get different perspectives from different people. This event truly had the young people at the heart of it and it was a joy to see how much they took from talking to different organisation.”
– Lisa Laidlaw – DYW Tay Cities Lead
Abertay 25 Plus with St Paul's RC Academy
Abertay 25 Plus with St Paul's RC Academy
Earlier this year, Abertay University partnered with St Paul’s RC Academy, to deliver the Abertay 25 plus project. The university celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2019 and as part of the celebrations developed Abertay 25; a project that aimed to help the Dundee community explore its rich history through the University archives.
Abertay 25 plus is a legacy programme built on Abertay 25 – a skills development project that encourages school pupils to collectively research stories using archives, and present their findings in creative ways. The process is well suited to a cross-curricular setting across Arts, Humanities, and Technologies, as this project demonstrated.
Computing Studies teacher, Mr Christie, from St Paul’s Academy, worked with Abertay University to deliver this to a class taking the NPA Games Development course.
The group was made up of students between the ages of 15-18 years old with differing levels of ability. With the NPA Games Development course being largely vocational and practical, it was identified that the Abertay 25 plus project would be perfect to fit in with the curriculum and inspire the young people with theme ideas for the game they were asked to develop.
To begin with, Abertay University Archivist Ruaraidh Wishart and a postgraduate volunteer introduced the class to the story of Abertay’s first computer bought in 1966, the Elliott 4100, through various archive materials. The class were encouraged to ask questions about the documents they were given and carry out their own research to find answers.
As they found out more in their research, many in the class became interested in the story of the clerkess that operated the computer, and the technological and social challenges she faced at that time. She became a major character for their video games, alongside technological and environmental features of computing in the 1960s – the paper punch tape used to feed programmes into the computer; the massive size of it compared to the computers we have now; and the need to keep its surroundings clean in case the heat generated by the circuits set fire to dust in the environment.
As part of the video game development process, pupils were then asked to design their game, sound, and artwork inspired by their research. In the end, the students produced video games using a variety of design applications and various style genres.
Overall, the project was a huge success as pupils completed the project brief set out in their curriculum and they developed valuable skills for the future – team working, researching and creative thinking, as well as skills relevant for careers in computer games development and heritage.
“As a teacher, the project has been fascinating to take part in and has stimulated and inspired the students to produce some unique concepts which I don’t feel we would have seen if we didn’t have the outside stimulus of Ruaraidh and the team. We hope we can work with Ruaraidh and Abertay again soon.”
– Mr Christie , St Paul’s RC Academy Class Teacher
How you can get involved:
A case-study video giving more details of the project is available on the Abertay 25 Plus page. This also gives links to the original Abertay 25 project materials that can be used by any class or community group to run their own Abertay 25 project. It includes education packs with suggestions of stories to explore, but which can also be adapted to suit the needs of the group using them.
As well as the resources page, a couple of introductory training sessions are being offered to let teachers and community groups find out more about the resources and methodology.
Early booking on these sessions is advised as space on them will be limited to 15 people per session, and offered on a first-come first-served basis. Participants will be expected to have looked through the resources beforehand and be prepared to discuss them during the session.
Dates, Booking, and Contact
Sessions are scheduled for 15 and 23 September at 4.15pm. To book a place on –
15th Sept click here
23rd Sept click here
For more information, please contact archives@abertay.ac.uk
#NoWrongPath - Eilidh McFarlane
#NoWrongPath - Eilidh McFarlane
“I left school at 16 years old to commence a Hairdressing Apprenticeship where I had been previously working on a Saturday. During this time I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to gain experience on other aspects of running a business and on completion, I decided to pursue going to college to gain a qualification in Business and Accountancy.
During this time I developed a real passion for this and had a job opportunity in a local accountancy firm to work within the payroll department. For three years, I built up payroll skills, knowledge, and experience training members of staff, managing my own clients and progressed to become a senior within the firm. Whilst I was gaining lots of experience I also wanted to gain a qualification so I made the decision to self-fund a foundation degree in Payroll Management through the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals.
I had seen the job at Hillcrest for a new Payroll Team Leader advertised and decided to apply following this. In June 2021 I successfully obtained the position. Although, I did not have previous experience managing staff, Hillcrest looked at other qualities and invested in the opportunity to train me through this experience. As I was approaching my final year of my degree, Hillcrest offered to financially support me through this and have been fully supportive and involved in me enhancing my learning. Since being at Hillcrest I have had lots of opportunities for development and have since been given the opportunity to Project Management a change in software for Payroll, HR and Learning and Development Team. Being a young person has never been a barrier in Hillcrest and I have never felt so valued, invested in and optimistic about the opportunities that my future holds.”
-Eilidh McFarlane, Payroll Team Leader, Hillcrest
An Open Letter to Young People
An Open Letter to Young People
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.
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.
Signed
Sandy Begbie, 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
Karen Betts, 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
Tim Balcon, Chief Executive, CITB
Craigowl Primary School Museum Project
Craigowl Primary School Museum Project
Earlier this year, Craigowl Primary School participated in a museum project – delivered via a partnership between Craigowl Primary School, HMS Unicorn, Museum Galleries Scotland and Developing the Young Workforce. Developing the Young Workforce Dundee and Angus assisted in the project by allocating funding towards the production of the booklets.
The aim of the project was to highlight the exciting, varied roles behind the scenes in museums and give the pupils a flavour of the practical skills required for these jobs. The young people were also challenged with bringing interesting stories from HMS Unicorn’s past to life, by designing activity books for different visiting school groups.
Most of the
pupils who attend Craigowl Primary School live in the Ardler and St Marys districts of Dundee. These areas are recognised to be in the 10% most deprived areas in in the Scotland where many children and families live in poverty and often have very limited resources and there are high levels of unemployment. A further aim therefore of the project was to give the children involved an opportunity to engage with an employment sector that they may have a limited exposure and access to.
In total 29 pupils were involved from the P7B class at Craigowl Primary School in Dundee, and two booklets were produced – one aimed at P1-4 on Life in the Georgian Navy, and the other aimed at P5-7 on HMS Unicorn – History and Design.
The project entailed a class visit to HMS Unicorn to discover information about the ship and its stories, as well as to have discussions on the design brief for activity books. The children were then split into two groups, with subgroups in Research, Design and Promotion. After the initial session on the ship, the pupils carried out the work back at their school over another six sessions on a weekly basis. Following this the pupils created a presentation based around the work they did for the project. The presentation included what went well and what they found challenging, the new skills they learned and a guide through the newly designed activity books.
The number of different parts to the project and tasks that needed to be completed meant that the children gained a greater number of transferrable employment skills that will be useful for their future careers, including careers in heritage. In the end, a majority of the pupils thought that they had improved to their transferable skills to some extent. The skills improved included; adaptability, design, listening, marketing, problem solving, research, teamwork, time management and working independently. In addition to this, the pupils gained a far greater knowledge of the type of work that happens ‘behind the scenes’ at museums.
The booklets have now since been printed and are available for school groups to use on board HMS Unicorn.
“HMS Unicorn loved having the opportunity to work with Developing the Young Workforce, Museums Galleries Scotland and Craigowl Primary School on this fantastic project. We were impressed by the passion, creativity and hard work from the P7B pupils and the activity book they created for groups visiting our museum.”
– Caroline Taylor, HMS Unicorn Volunteering, Engagement and Learning Officer
“It was a huge amount of work, but the children got a great sense of achievement and pride with the completed work.”
– Rachel Mcwalter, Craigowl Primary School P7B Class Teacher