Author Archives: K. Mayer

Women in Wellies – Event 2018⤴

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A one day event to inspire young women to choose rural careers took place on 30th October 2018.

The event was a huge success with 170 attendees and Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) is keen to do the event again next year.

CNPA is also keen for organisations across Scotland to use the model and repeat the event.

A new webpage has been created, sharing videos of the event and providing links for rural careers information (training, volunteering, jobs, qualifications):

http://cairngorms.co.uk/caring-future/education-learning/women-in-wellies/

This document outlines how we planned the event, successes, and how Women in Wellies can be developed in the future. Please share the document with anyone who is interested in planning a Women in Wellies event.

Attendees

The venue (Boat of Garten Community Hall) had a seated capacity of 200. We invited five local High Schools (Alford, Aboyne, Kingussie, Grantown and Speyside) to bring up to 30 girls each from S4-S6. We promoted the event to students through contacts at UHI. We opened up some places for young women and women seeking a career change through Eventbrite. All places were free. CNPA covered transport costs for school groups.

Speakers

We planned speakers by thinking about the particular jobs / areas of work in the outdoor sector we wanted covered, and then consulted our steering group to find suggestions for good speakers to fill those slots.  Here is an outline of the programme.

Programme

30th October 2018 Boat of Garten

9.30 Arrival and Welcome

10 Introduction by Jo O’Hara (Forestry Commission Scotland)

10.40 Panel chaired by Anna Fleming (Cairngorms National Park Authority) Area Speaker Organisation / employer
Stalking Megan Rowland Gordonbush Estate
Crofting / rangering / landscape management Lynn Cassells Lynbreck Croft
Farming Joyce Campbell Women in Agriculture Taskforce
Recreation / mountain guiding Heather Morning Mountaineering Scotland
Conservation / landscape Frances Thin Cairngorms National Park Authority
Forestry Sarah Toulson Cawdor Forestry

 

Afternoon

Farming and crofting Lynn and Sandra, Lynbreck Croft
 
Forestry, conservation and field ecology Becks Denny, field surveys
Veterinary, equine and academia Sophie Boyd, Strathspey Veterinary Centre
Game keeping, stalking and fisheries Pamela Esson, River Dee Trust
Guiding, recreation and rangers Heather Morning, Mountaineering Scotland

 

 

Young Enterprise Scotand – News⤴

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Earlier this year our Bridge 2 Business Programme joined forces with Heehaw, to bring an exciting competition and opportunity for Edinburgh College Students.

The competition gave Edinburgh College students the opportunity to win a paid work placement, and valuable experience in the industry of animation, film & television. This opportunity also gave students the chance to develop their skills, which hopefully would secure them a job in the future or give real inspiration to start up their own business!

Earlier this week, we got news from HeeHaw that the students who won the competition through Bridge2Business, have in fact gained employment within the industry. We had 40 students apply for the placement, which was then narrowed down to a top ten, and ultimately two won a paid placement!

 

#collaboration is a core value of everything we do and stand for at Young Enterprise Scotland you can imagine how pleased we are to be working with VIBES – Scottish Environment Business Awards.

Businesses in Scotland are taking significant steps to improve or reduce their impact on the environment, often saving money in the process. The VIBES are held each year to recognise and showcase best practice.

The VIBES – Scottish Environment Business Awards are a partnership between Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), The Scottish Government, Energy Saving Trust, Highland & Islands Enterprise, Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Water, Zero Waste Scotland and the 20:20 Climate Group. We were delighted to showcase our work via young people from Lochend Community School in Glasgow as well as being the charity partner at the lunch receiving over £1600 to help continue our work.

As we approach the end of Scotland’s Year of Young People we can look back with warmth at the role that Young Enterprise Scotland has played, and we will join a celebration event on 3rd December to showcase the legacy if the year’s activity.

The one key takeaway for Young Enterprise Scotland has been improved co-creation and engagement with young people to help shape our programmes for young people in the future.

This was to the fore this week as we held focus groups with our current group of Pathway Programme participants to use their knowledge of issues and challenges they face to help us shape a future enterprise programme fit for purpose and meeting the beneficiary needs – putting the customer at the heart of your business

Scottish Borders – Teacher Industry Insight Placements⤴

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Scottish Borders Council provided 55 teachers with the opportuntity to find out first hand the skills required in  local  industries.

Sarah Rowson- Teacher of Modern languages from Berwickshire High School shares her experiences

Before the end of the summer term 2018 I spent two days with Rabbie’s Trail Burners as part of my Teacher Industry Insight Placement organised by Developing the Young Workforce Borders .

I spent one day in the Edinburgh headquarters being introduced to employees across the various departments and hearing about their roles in the organisation.  This was highly informative and helped me understand the structure and functions within the company.

The second day I spent on a day tour of the “West Highlands, Lochs and Castles” to give me a taste of Rabbie’s business from a customer’s viewpoint.

Since then, I have built on this link with Elaine Brannan, Head of HR, who is going well beyond the call of duty for my pupils.  I am running the SQA Languages for Life and Work Award this session, which includes an Employability unit.  Elaine has been in to Berwickshire High School to meet my pupils and has committed to coming back on several occasions to help them identify their transferable skills, create CVs and work on their interview skills.  She has also offered work experience to a small number.  Taking part in all these activities – and especially being interviewed and given constructive feedback – will be enormously beneficial for my pupils.  Elaine’s first visit last week was met with enormous enthusiasm, the most I have seen from this group for anything work-related!

My background is business-related (before I became a teacher) and both my experience and that of all the business contacts we have forged are really bringing home to the pupils the importance of identifying the transferable skills that they already have and developing them still further.  In this class our focus is not really the academic, but rather developing these young people in preparation to join the workforce in due course.  The placement I had with Rabbies has been invaluable here.

F4S: Teacher Industry Insights Event⤴

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What is a Teacher Industry Insights event? 
Bring industry insights into the classroom by offering sessions to teachers. These could be in the classroom or workplace. This is an opportunity for teachers to understand the motivations and drivers of industry sector employers. A fantastic opportunity for dialogue between professionals.

What is the impact of a Teacher Industry Insight Event?
Teacher Industry Insight Events are a useful way of cross referencing the world of the classroom with that of industry to compare experiences and work towards preparing our young people for successful futures.

Curriculum Links:  Building the Curriculum 4
“Progression and development in many aspects of health and wellbeing will depend upon the stage of growth, development and maturity of the individual, upon social issues and upon the community context. Teachers and other practitioners in planning together will take account of these factors, ensuring that experiences are relevant and realistic for the child or young person in his or her circumstances. Particularly within experiences and outcomes which span more than one level, careful planning will be required to ensure appropriate pace and coverage, and teachers and other practitioners will need to decide when and how the experiences and outcomes are introduced. The planning arrangements within which local authorities, schools and teachers work must ensure that these decisions are taken in the best interests of each child and young person and take account of his or her social and personal circumstances as necessary.”

Click Here to find out more about this event type and make a booking.

Latest exemplars:

Kingspark Secondary School:     Kings park educators (1)

St Peter’s RC Primary School:    St Peter Primary

My Enterprising Profile – Reflection Tool⤴

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We are also delighted this week to relaunch our “Enterprise Profile” personal reflection tool through our website.

Originally developed three years ago the report has been updated to add area which give young people an understanding of their strengths and how to maximise their talents as well as looking at their potential growth areas.

The re-issue, in collaboration with our friends at Scotland’s Enterprising Schools, is a great chance to enable many young people to get a very useful reflective document that will help them in school, life and work.

The FREE assessment tool for young people will assess their own enterprise skills and see where their strengths lie – a young person may be a successful future entrepreneur, they just don’t know it yet!

We believe that to help young people develop skills and understand what they’re good it, they need to have a starting point. The “My Enterprise Profile” assessment tool is this starting point.  It only takes15 minutes to go through the questions.

After completion you will be sent a thoroughly detailed report that illustrates six key areas of enterprise and which of these areas you excel in.

There is no age limit to talking the test – why not learn something new about yourself by taking 15 minutes this week to undertake this test?

https://portal.talentstrengths.com/publicCampaign.htm?code=yes-mej

Career Pathways for Teachers: engagement event, 23 October⤴

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It’s your future, come and share with us what you‎ think we should be considering!

An independent panel has been set up, led by Moyra Boland, Glasgow University, to consider new approaches to Career Pathways for Teachers that are fit for purpose for our modern Education system.  All teachers have been sent a link to an online survey and in addition we are very keen to hear your views directly. ‎We are going around the country to engage directly with education staff. 

An engagement event has been set up in your area:

 Date:               Tuesday 23rd October

Time:               1600-1730

Venue:             Bellahouston Academy

                          30 Gower Terrace

                         Glasgow

                         G41 5QE

 

Founders4Schools – News⤴

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Announcing the Founders4Schools iPad App
On October 9th we announced the new Founders4Schools iPad App being rolled out across schools in Glasgow City. A brand new tool for teachers who want their students to benefit from encounters with local business leaders. The first version of the app will let teachers go through the full booking process: set up your event, share the details with us and find suitable speakers from the local area. It also provides plenty of detail about each potential speaker, as well as filters to help you select business leaders relevant to your school.

New case study formats
Whether you are a teacher, practitioner or an employer an easy way to get a feel for what Founders4Schools can offer you have a look at the following exemplars:

September has been our best month ever!
Over the month of September teachers across Scotland booked Founders4Schools encounters which will positively affect 3300 young people in Scotland. Have a look at our events map and see what’s happening near you. https://dywscot.founders4schools.org.uk/events Then why not book an event in your area? https://dywscot.founders4schools.org.uk/search/full

SDS Event: ‘Ensuring Foundation Apprenticeships are at the heart of the curriculum’ – catch up⤴

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A thought-provoking event on the further expansion of Foundation Apprenticeships across the country has taken place in August with a number of inspirational presentation s by gues speakers:

• Presentation – Damien Yeates
• Presentation – Tony McDaid
• Presentation – Diane Greenlees
• Presentation – Philip Black
• Fife case study
• South Lanarkshire case study
• East Renfrewshire case study
• Glasgow case study
• Perth and Kinross case study

If you would like a colleague from Skills Development Scotland to get in touch regarding Foundation Apprenticeships, contact SDS at conference@sds.co.uk .

Social Bite calls for Scotland’s young people to join movement against homelessness with first ever ‘Wee Sleep Out’ initiative⤴

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Social Bite has  launched the Wee Sleep Out; a national awareness raising and fundraising campaign to get the young people of Scotland involved in the charity’s mission to end homelessness.
Wee Sleep Out is calling on all teachers, youth leaders, parents and guardians to challenge young people between 8 and 16 years old to get out of their beds, and their comfort zones by organising their very own Wee Sleep Outs on 9 November, as part of Scotland’s Year of Young People 2018.
From back gardens to school grounds, living room floors to community halls, each Wee Sleep Out is putting young people in the driving seat and giving them the opportunity to showcase their skills and talents by leading on the development and delivery of their own sleep outs and being enterprising in their apporaches to  gathering support and raising funds. 

There will be no sign-up fee, and no minimum fundraising target to make this initiative accessible to all – Social Bite would of course be delighted if young people fundraise as much as they can to contribute to their nationwide movement to end homelessness.
Money raised from the Wee Sleep Out events will go towards Social Bite’s wider Sleep in the Park total, which includes supporting Social Bite’s major Housing First initiative, which is expected to take 800 rough sleepers off the streets by 2020.
A number of young people who organise their own Wee Sleep Outs will also have the opportunity to play a starring role across Sleep in the Park events on 8 December, sharing their personal experiences of delivering their own Wee Sleep Out to participants.
Alice Thomson, co-founder of Social Bite and organiser of the Wee Sleep Out, said: “The success of Sleep in the Park last year was overwhelming. To bring 8,000 people together and raise £4 million in the process was incredible, and this year we want the young people of Scotland to join us.
“There’s been a real appetite from the young people of Scotland looking to get involved, and a number of them got in touch after Sleep in the Park, offering their support. We even had Cody McManus, aged 9, brave the Beast from the East and sleep out in an Igloo in his back garden – raising £1,000 for the cause.
“We’re proud to launch the Wee Sleep Out during Scotland’s Year of Young People and give the young people of Scotland a voice. We want people of all ages to get involved with Social Bite’s mission to eradicate homelessness, and we’re inviting young people across the country to get creative and take the lead by organising their own Wee Sleep Out this year.”
Olivia Ferguson, a 16-year-old student at Kelso High School, took part in Sleep in the Park last year and contacted Alice after the event, keen to do something involving other young people. She said: “This a great opportunity for young people to come together to help end homelessness.

“Last year my family and I took part in the Sleep in the Park, which was a very humbling experience. I didn’t want my support to end there, so I got in touch with Alice and suggested an event in the Borders, and I can wait to organise a Wee Sleep Out.”

Paul Bush OBE, VisitScotland’s Director of Events, said:
“The Year of Young People 2018 provides us with a wonderful opportunity to celebrate, showcase and most importantly empower young people to make a difference.”
“We are delighted to be supporting Social Bite’s Wee Sleep Out as part of Scotland’s current themed year. It provides a fantastic opportunity for young people across Scotland to lead the way in the delivery and development of events in their communities and at home to raise awareness of an important issue. 2018 is the time to give young people the power to create change and celebrate their spirit of creativity and innovation – we can’t wait to hear all the ways in which they plan to take part in the Wee Sleep Out.”
The Wee Sleep Out is now open for registration at www.weesleepout.co.uk
Join the conversation #WeeSleepOut #YOYP2018

Language skills – a crutial asset in a global economy⤴

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More companies are trading with international markets and this has led to growth in global supply chains. Because of this, there is greater demand for workers who have modern language skills, experience of the international business environment and are prepared to work globally.

Increasingly, companies are interested in employing people who can engage and communicate with their customers and suppliers around the world. Workers with experience of the international business environment are more likely to recognise the cultural differences around the world and understand potential trade challenges and find solutions – companies look favourably upon this skillset.

A survey of UK companies found that a quarter of those surveyed said they had lost international business to their competitors, as they did not have adequate modern language skills in their organisation. It is imperative that we move away from the attitude that modern language skills is a ‘nice to have’ attribute.

Learning a modern language will help improve employment prospects. According to a 2015 QS world university rankings report, six out of ten employers said they would give extra credit for international student experience.

Company examples

Paul Sheerin, Chief Executive, Scottish Engineering: “Companies need to open their minds and see exporting as a possibility. People learning languages in school is massively important in that respect. It is not important which language they learn—it is important that they learn a language.”

Do you want to engage with schools?

As a first port of call Scotland National Centre for Languages website outlines their support to engage with schools: https://www.scilt.org.uk/Business/tabid/1297/Default.aspx

Why not get involved with Developing the Young Workforce? The Scottish Government’s Youth Employment Strategy aims to engage employers with education to better prepare young people for the world of work. https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers/Developing the Young Workforce (DYW)

Do you need language support to enter a particular market?

Talk to a Scottish Development International (SDI) export adviser about your requirements. SDI may be able to support with translation and language requirements. https://www.scottish-enterprise.com/services/do-business-outside-scotland/talk-to-an-export-adviser/overview/enquiry-form

Do you want to get involved with Developing the Young Workforce and support young people in school?

There are now twenty-one DYW regional groups covering the whole of Scotland. The groups are led by industry and are the main conduit between employers and schools. They can provide practical support to develop programmes, which allow you to engage with young people.

Get in touch with your regional group using the details below:

Regional Group Contact Email
Ayrshire Claire Baird cbaird@ayrshire-chamber.org
Argyll and Bute Maureen McKenna Maureen.McKenna@uhi.ac.uk
Borders Sara Ward sward@dywborders.co.uk
Dundee and Angus Angela Vettraino angela@dywda.co.uk
Dumfries and Galloway Tricia Hunter tricia.hunter@dgchamber.co.uk
Edinburgh and Lothians Michelle Fenwick michelle.fenwick@edinburghchamber.co.uk
Fife Ray Fernie ray.fernie@fife.gov.uk
Forth Valley Jen Henderson jen.henderson@dyw.forthvalley.ac.uk
Glasgow Leona Seaton Leona.seaton@glasgowchamberofcommerce.com
Inverness and Central

Highland

Andy Maxtone andy@dywich.co.uk
Lanarkshire Alison Nimmo Animmo@dywled.org
North Highland Trudy Morris trudy@caithnesschamber.com
Perth and Kinross Fiona Reith FReith@pkc.gov.uk
West Highland Dougie Ormiston douglas.ormiston@dywwesthighland.org
Moray Sarah Baxter sbaxter@dywmoray.co.uk
Orkney Rachel Scarth rachel.scarth@uhi.ac.uk
Shetland Shona Thompson shona.thompson@shetland.gov.uk
North East James Bream james.bream@agcc.co.uk
Outer Hebrides Bernard Chisholm b.chisholm@cne-siar.gov.uk
West Bob Davidson Bob.Davidson@dywwest.co.uk
West Lothian Lauren Brown lauren.brown@dyw-wl.com

Are you a large national employer looking to develop a programme to rollout across multiple regions in Scotland? Get in touch with Steven Turnbull who can support you to develop a programme – steven.turnbull@gov.scot