Author Archives: Peter Murray

Abercromby Primary- Skills Approach⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

The school supports Clackmannanshire’s aim of increasing the number of pupils reaching positive destinations. The aim of the ‘Skills Academy’ at Abercromby Primary is to develop skills for learning, life and work from Early to Second Level, across a broad range of curricular areas. The school believe that building confidence to achieve goals should begin as early as possible for all our pupils, alongside equipping them with the skills to achieve this.

Abercromby staff recognise the involvement of our whole school community as being key to driving forward the aims of our Skills Academy. This includes parental involvement and partnerships with the wider community, local business and Forth Valley College. Parents have been involved in planning, leading learning through sharing their knowledge and expertise by giving talks and setting up practical activities and challenges for our learners, as well as volunteering their time to support groups of children on visits.

One afternoon per week is dedicated to skills development for all learners. Activities are planned around ‘I can statements’ from the Careers Education Scotland Standard 3-18 with strong links to Literacy, Numeracy and HWB.

Year 1:
P6 and P7 pupils were allocated to groups based on their future ambitions and interests and worked on a 10 week project. All pupils visited Forth Valley College – Alloa Campus to learn about courses on offer and the facilities. Pupils returned with positive impressions of further education.

There were 5 work streams consisting of:

Food Technology – pupils participated in cookery lessons and focused on skills, hygiene, safety and using equipment. They had a visit from a chef, cake decorator and local butcher who talked about their career paths, qualifications and skills required for their job as well as leading experiences. Pupils also visited the Hospitality Department at Forth Valley College Stirling and the Home Economics department at the local high school.

Design and Manufacture – The pupils visited the Engine Shed in Stirling twice, to learn about the design of buildings, materials, resources and architecture around the world. A local Graphic Designer delivered a session, looking at various companies’ logos and design. Pupils also visited FVC Design and Media Department. Focus on STEM.

Money Sense and Enterprise – Pupils set up their own business, created a name, logo, market research and set up their business, Slime Time.

Community – Pupils worked with a volunteer in the school and community garden, making bird feeders, planting flowers and vegetables. They were also involved in the renovation of Cambus Woods, planting trees and continuing to monitor their progress.

Creativity – Pupils are working towards creating a documentary about our new school. They began by looking at films and discussed the format of a documentary and narrative. They have begun to write storylines for their own film.

Year 2 –
This Session is built on existing practice and extended across the school.  There was an initial discussion/lesson and timeline designed by each learner. Each week the children move round in a carousel format to the different planned activities.

Diageo, a local employer are supporting sessions with senior pupils, including 5 week blocks with 2 engineers and 2 scientists. FVC and Robertsons are also supporting 5 week blocks. Their IDL Skills Academy Poster was showcased at a recent conference at the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Statistics show that pupils in Clackmannanshire are more likely to be unemployed and less likely to go on to positive destinations on leaving school, than the average pupils in Scotland. Additionally unemployment is closely linked to deprivation deciles. Just under 40% of pupils reside in deciles 1 and 2, which means statistically those pupils are less likely to find employment in future.

The Skills Academy is providing a structure to ensure positive outcomes for our learners. This programme has been designed, taking account of evaluations and feedback . It is tailored to meet the needs of all learners and will continue to develop depending on interests and skills development required to support future goals. This starts in the nursery where children are developing skills through daily activities and increasingly taking on more roles of responsibility.

Abercromby are  making the most of all the opportunities afforded by their unique position of having a campus.  Partnership with Robertson Construction ensures that pupils from all stages are exposed to experiences related to ‘jobs’ on the site. This involves visiting the site and recording progress in mixed age groups and Robertson staff working with pupils in the school and nursery on numerous activities, with a strong focus on STEM and team building challenges.

All pupils have the opportunity to participate in all activities within their year group, ensuring a well-rounded experience. All are included and participation in this programme which impacts positively on their health and wellbeing, ensuring that they are equipped with the essential skills, knowledge and attributes for further education, the world of work and beyond.

Relationships across our whole school community are stronger, which impacts on  learner’s health and wellbeing and future prospects. This partnership has supported the driving of the programme forward. Everyone’s contributions are valued and there is real sense of ‘team’.

Staff have improved their understanding and practice of DYW. A Baseline was completed using the Careers Education Scotland Standard Self-Evaluation Tool.  Informed planning with members of staff taking responsibility for planning work streams and activities. Resources to support DYW were purchased through PEF. Staff have enjoyed working with mixed groups of children who are not in their class. Pupils have also benefited from working in different teams.

Pupil have been involved in consultation and evaluations. Pupil are engaged in Skills Academy Learning. They have had careers related experiences they would not have otherwise had. Pupils are thinking more about careers and engaging more in focused discussions about future employment. They are more aware of job opportunities and different roles and skills required for jobs they weren’t aware of before. They have increased their knowledge of local employers. They have been fully engaged and motivated when they have been working with parents and other partners. They have developed new employability skills and have contributed to improving their local environment.

Bramble Brae Primary School- Partnership Approach to DYW⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

Bramble Brae School worked with all stakeholders to redesign a bespoke curriculum for the school. Creativity and employability skills are being developed within the curriculum as they engage with local employers to create an enriching and inspiring learning environment: making connections across different areas of learning and using whole school themes to encourage involvement and deepen understanding.

Through this, the school is developing materials and opportunities for learning in a wide variety of contexts and settings: from the local supermarket; to a nearby building site and visits from local musicians to share stories about local history and traditions throughout the school. Displays, open mornings, assemblies and local radio interviews are some of the ways in which the children share their skills and the value of their experiences with others.

The school motto: Belonging, Believing Achieving encapsulates the vision, values and aims that Bramble Brae aspire to. To support this the school embarked on a unique approach by employing a Business and Community Ambassador, more commonly known as the ‘Good Fairy’ by staff and pupils; a first for Aberdeen City. Through working collaboratively with teachers and pupils, she initiates and develops relevant links with businesses, employers and third sector partners across the city, country and even the world! This has resulted in the ‘World of Work’ being embedded across the curriculum and throughout the school, with links from Nursery through to P7. This role also provides flexibility to meet with potential partners and provides valuable and meaningful communication between all partners to share information about the particular and specific needs and aspirations of children and allows freedom to develop learning materials which can be built upon for successive year groups. The partnerships benefit pupils within school and in after school activities. The school runs entrepreneurial activities throughout all classes and has an annual showcase, celebratory event that all are invited to.

In P6 employability skills are developed with partners to provide a real insight into the skills pupils are developing: their strengths and preferences in how they make choices in different situations which leads to them analysing and then ultimately becoming mini-apprentices in real life roles within the school. This work augments the world of work ‘Animal Me’ exercises by involving a local psychologist from a business consultancy introducing personality tests to build confidence then looks at what each individual child brings to the world. The school have then built links with the University Business School and lecturers help them to understand how skills they are developing are sought for specific roles in the world of work.

Mock interviewing is a brilliant way of building resilience and communication skills and each applicant works within their chosen role either within the school, or within the local community library or secondary school if they choose to apply for a librarian position. The School’s programme has been recognised by Skills Development Scotland who shared this as good practice with other schools after meeting the children involved. They have information for a case study which they are hoping to share online in the future. By looking at familiar jobs within the school the children developed an understanding of how people help them and have become more responsible in their behaviour and approach to others. It’s also helped them identify skills they have or can acquire for the work of work and widened their horizons. They enjoyed sharing this learning with other classes and parents/carers in the showcase celebration event too. It’s encouraged them to challenge perceptions of themselves and others as well as enhancing their learning across all areas of the curriculum.

Throughout the school all pupils develop employability and creativity skills with whole school contexts for learning across the year.

– A new theme starts with all pupils identifying their BIG questions
– These are shared with the ‘Good Fairy’ looks at possible links, resources or visits
– All work collaboratively to facilitate these.
– Through this approach, there is a focus on personalisation and choice.

Promoting equity, equality, diversity and inclusion through their partnerships to develop employability and creativity. This innovative approach enables access to world of work for the children. Many of whom do not have access to family and friends to ask about this. These experiences are particularly valuable for many of our children who live within an area designated as a ‘regeneration area’ and who have many different experiences through school which increase their social capital. Some examples include:

A female engineer visiting to talk about renewable energy. They embraced the chance to ask her about what she did in the oil and gas industry. Through this link, the children were then able to explore diversity and equality further through an expansive Flat Stanley activity by writing letters to her work colleagues across the globe asking about where they lived and what it was like there.

Event where they invited 4 local schools to take part in an event to tackle gender stereotyping and perceptions about the world of work. A huge benefit in reducing gender stereotypes and inspiring pupils was reported after this highly interactive event.

Looking at the local environment and visiting new housing close to the school that pupils were interested in. They arranged a whole class visit to the building site. Being with builders, architects and site managers provided an insight into skills for future jobs.

Impacts on the learners include an increase in self-determination, self-esteem, self-belief and enthusiasm plus suggestions of whom we might engage with to enrich their learning experiences. By having and building upon partner relationships the children and teachers, feel comfortable in asking questions and there are reciprocal benefits in terms of understanding for employers about current education practice, the value of their input in making a positive difference and, often, a renewed interest in their own role within an organisation having explained what they do and what they enjoy about their job to a class of inquisitive pupils. Also, with a move towards diversity, equality and inclusion within our business partners’ corporate social responsibility values, their involvement with our school and community supports these values. The school celebrates success together and within the community.

During the summer term, each class puts together activities and materials to celebrate and share how they’ve engaged with organisations to develop their employability and creativity skills. This whole school showcase is open to all parents/carers; partners and the community and, last year, was a lively and interactive session designed and led by the children to demonstrate how they’d developed and what they’d enjoyed learning throughout the school year.

Staff find that being able to introduce a topic with a practical example, finding someone who has expertise and resources to share with the pupils brings an extra dimension into the classroom and can support and develop interdisciplinary learning.

Castlemilk High School-Skills Framework⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

Developing young people’s skills is a priority in Castlemilk High School. The leadership team comprising of a senior staff member, a Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) lead, youth worker, careers advisor and MCR pathways coordinator have adopted a streamlined and transparent approach to developing young people’s skills for life, learning and work. To support this, a ‘Skills Framework’ – known as ‘the Two ships and the 3’C’s’ has been implemented across all aspects of the curriculum.

The Framework is embedded into learning to ensure that all young people are engaging with a holistic language which was carefully created to allow them to recognise and understand their skill sets and relate these to their career aspirations. The impact is that young people are better able to articulate their skills set preparing them for the world of work.

Collaboration with both the wider community and employers has been integral to successful realisation of this goal. Following guidance in key documents such as BTC4, a strategic meeting of the team identified assess skills gaps in the labour market. The staff and parents of young people were asked to identify skills that young people needed to develop further to make them ‘work ready’.
The view of our partnership employers events were also aligned with this. This ensured that the Framework reflected both our local community too. The development of visual design for the Framework was supported by a local graphics company.

The consultation with staff, parents and partners was highlighted as a key strength of the Framwork during a recent inspection by Education Scotland and was praised for its sector leading approach to skills development.

In a competitive world, Castlemilk High School feel it is important for our young people to be able to confidently articulate their skills to give them a better chance of securing positive destinations. The ‘Skills Framework’ was developed to address the skills requirement for the current and future labour markets. By creating a common language, they expect that these transferable skills will become more transparent and identifiable to the young people across their curricular learning.

Staff in the school are openly engaging with young people in conversations about their own skill sets and have displayed their own personal ‘skills journey’ from school to the work place in attractive poster displays created by the DYW team.

Staff use the ‘Two Ships and the Three Cs’ to compliment learning and teaching:

Science

Pupil Log Books are adapted to encourage learners’ to identify skills they have developed during a unit of work allowing them to make meaningful connections as to how these skills can be applied across curricular areas.

Drama and Music

A skills focus is shared every lesson with one skill from the Framework at the fore, strengthening our young peoples’ ability to recognise transferability of skills between curricular areas.

Wider Achievement programme has further developed and helped to track skills using the Framework. Young people elect to take three Wider Achievement blocks, one per term. Using a tracking system, young people assess themselves against the skills framework, recording their skills journey through a variety of activities designed to enhance personal achievement. For example:

Young person may decide to focus on enhancing their leadership skills during a wider achievement block. By opting for an activity designed to enhance that skill, they can target skills that need improvement and take ownership over working towards them.

Many young people need support in articulating their skills and describing the qualities that they have developed. By providing a common framework and language, this enables our young people to confidently compete more effectively in the post-school market against their counterparts. The Skills Framework is key in allowing us to work with the young people against the cultural and economic barriers they face in our community.

In addition, we have embedded flexible and tailored work placement opportunities for young people by effectively tracking our young peoples’ skills and aspirations. This approach has been praised by external agencies involved in DYW.

The work placement format focuses on ensuring young people get the most out of their time in the work place, setting goals with regard to the Skills Framework prior to going and reflecting on these when returned.

In addition, work-related subject choices with a focus in the Skills Framework have been embedded into curriculum:

Princes Trust,

Rural Skills

Community Youth Work Skills.

This ensures  learning is focused on providing the skills that allow them to flourish. These courses not only gain qualifications but they build on skills that aren’t always available in a more traditional school curriculum.

The Skills Framework has allowed a greater focus on the aspects of work-related learning that can have most impact to our young people. Partnership has been at the very heart of our ‘Skills Framework’ from the outset. The team itself consist of a number of diverse stakeholders drawn from existing partnerships with the Castlemilk Youth Complex, MCR Pathways and Skills Development Scotland. This has allowed the ‘Two Ships and the Three Cs’ to filter readily into our community.

The DYW team are responsible for co-ordinating all aspects of young person’s work journey and the Skills Framework are increasingly moving towards the centre of this. For example, in conversations with Skills Development Scotland advisor, young people are encouraged to describe and apply their skills when writing personal statements and applying for college or part time work. The Framework is used as a toll in 1:1 conversations to explore and develop young people’s career management skills, allowing them to identify their own skills and how this fits into the world of work.

In addition, MCR pathways co-ordinator uses the Framework to support her work with care-experienced young people. Young people are encouraged to develop their skills from the Framework and five S3-S6 young people are MCR Pathways Young Ambassadors.

S1-S3 YP are given opportunities to visit universities, S3-S4 can participate in a wide range of Talent Tasters that range from Construction, Hair Beauty, Factory Working, Law, Architect, Police, Nurse, Primary Teaching & Engineering. They use the Framework to reflect on skills developed. These individualised university visits, Talent Tasters and our flexible work experience opportunities have ensured that our young people are making informed choices about developing their skills to suit their future careers.

The totality of this work means that young people are therefore more able to sustain a positive destinations.

Parkhill Enterprise Academy⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

The Enterprise Academy at Parkhill Secondary School was formally opened to pupils in August 2017.

It is a vibrant initiative that supports young people with Additional Support Needs into positive and sustained destinations.

DYW Case Study

This is part of Parkhill Secondary School but is also available to pupils across Glasgow schools. Courses focus on vocational areas where there are opportunities for young people with Additional Support Needs to gain employment. At Parkhill they focus on the individual needs of every young person. The Enterprise Academy allows them to build on the interest and aspirations of the young people by helping them to develop new skills for work and future career choices.

Several rooms in the school were transformed as part of the development. These are, professional kitchen, café area, hotel bedroom and office training room. A boot room was also added to the already established horticulture area. These areas allow the school to offer realistic work environments where young people can develop skills for learning, life and work.

The Enterprise Academy works in partnership with colleges (Glasgow Kelvin and City of Glasgow) and has business partnerships, it 7 courses at present focusing on 3 key areas of Hospitality; Horticulture and Administration, this is a range of the courses available:

Introduction to Hotel Skills
NPA Professional Cookery Level 3
Culinary Ability (only centre in Scotland delivering this)
National 5 Practical Cookery
SVQ Level 1 Horticulture
NPA Level 4 Horticulture
NPA Administrative Activities.

These courses are delivered by college lecturers and teachers which offer the young people realistic vocational pathways into careers where there are opportunities open to them. The courses have been selected to reflect the interest and needs of young people working at SCQF levels 3 and 4/5.

One of the key successes of the Enterprise Academy is that it offers young people a safe and nurturing environment in which to learn, thus offering a bridge between school and college.

The school has worked closely with business partners Milnbank Housing Association, Hilton Glasgow and Radisson Red to develop a robust programme of exciting and innovative activities aimed at enhancing the employability of all pupils involved with the school and Enterprise Academy. This has included industry visits and supporting young people with activities in the school. They hosted a Business Breakfast in the school to help promote the Enterprise Academy and the pupils presented at this to inform them of future ideas along with showcasing skills that they have developed.

Furthermore the established work placements are incorporated into their timetable and are working very well. These have mainly been in the hotel kitchen and have proven to be very beneficial to the development of their skillset. Work placements are also supported by an ENABLE Employment co-ordinator.

The school undertook a project to examine how the work of the Enterprise Academy and the school’s partnerships reflect the Career Education Standards. The Enterprise Academy has also been a focus for an international ERASMUS + exchange programme which started in May 2017. The programme focuses on the hospitality and hotel skills classes. 6 Young people along with 2 teachers visit Nuremberg in Germany with a reciprocal visit to Glasgow allowing the young people to develop their skills in this area. They have secured funding for another 2 years and are in process of planning the next exchange which is extremely exciting for the school, this has worked very well and they look forward to being part of this international project again.

Parkhill Secondary School is a school for young people with Additional Support Needs and therefore Inclusion is always a key focus of the school. All of the young people who attend the school have some form of barrier to learning, many are on the Autism Spectrum whilst others have global learning difficulties. The Enterprise Academy gives the young people a structured and supportive framework to be able to access vocational opportunities and therefore positive and sustained destinations. One of the central aims of the Enterprise Academy is to ensure that all young people are given the best chance to enter employment and to develop their skills.

A very high number of the young people come from SIMD 1-4 backgrounds and have Free Meal Entitlement and therefore the school and the Enterprise Academy are acutely aware of the need to ensure parents and carers are not asked to supplement their son/daughter’s education and cover all costs through other funding.

Every young person who starts at the Enterprise Academy is given an induction where the expected behaviour in the school building is explained to them. This helps to address issues such diversity and equality, especially as many of the young people in the school can be very vulnerable.

The Monitoring Impact group is monitoring the impact both on leavers destinations which has been reviewed and is now looking at individual targets for each pupil. They provide data regarding destinations of leavers and it has been recorded through Career Interviews that more young people are identifying potential career paths in line with the key areas. Furthermore, in S1-3 young people have shown much greater interest in the 3 key areas of Academy.

The Enterprise Academy has helped raise the profile of the school through features on websites, media and is active on social media. This in turn has had a huge effect on the confidence of the young people.

The school have been encouraging parents to get involved in many ways and they have shown a keen interest throughout the establishment its development including being on a Steering group and have been invited to take part in a number of events. Parents have also attended visits to Hilton and Radisson Red to help raise their understanding of the kinds of vocational opportunities their young people may be able to access in the future, they also have a pilot programme with Hi (Hub International) which will deliver workshops to parents.

The school staff members have had CPD opportunities to be up-skilled in Horticulture and attended “Buddy Days” in the Hilton Hotel. These have been invaluable as they now have knowledge and skills which enable them to support and assist in the delivery of lessons. Also, by ensuring that the business partners have been involved in the process of the establishment and continuous development of the Academy, this has fostered a real feeling of ownership for the project and an understanding of the aims. This has also given a great sense of achievement to all involved.

DYW Learning Resources: Collated Offer⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

The following information outlines the core resources available to help embed DYW in the curriculum:

These outline key entitlements and expectations around DYW in education and provides guidance for planning and progression:

Career Education Standard (3–18)
Career Education Standard (3-18) (Gaelic version)

Establishments need to continue to develop sustainable partnerships with employers, businesses and colleges:

School-Employer Partnerships

There are currently a number of ways young people can develop their work-related learning:

Work Placements Standard (English version)
Work Placements Standard (Gaelic version)

DYW Learning Resources

These will aid practitioners in developing strategies to aid career advice and guidance:

Career Education Standard (3-18): Suite of Learning Resources
Career Education Standard – Exemplification Tool
CES 3-18 Reflection tool and Self-evaluation Wheel
Guidance and learning resource: Profiling skills and achievements in the context of career education

The following will help to develop DYW in the Senior Phase:

A self-evaluation guide for school/college partnerships
Senior Phase Benchmarking Tool
Learning pathways: Senior Phase design

These can aid the development equalities in relation to DYW:

DYW- Embedding equality into resources for learning’ guide
Improving gender balance from 3-18
Improving gender balance – Gender friendly physics
Improving gender balance – Big Me

Developing work placements and work-related learning:

Self-evaluation Tool
Benchmarking exercise
Building the Curriculum 4
Toolkit for Work-related Learning (PDF file)
Work Placement Toolkit (PDF file)
SQA Work Placement Resources

St Luke’s pupils have designs on successful careers⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

Pupils at a Barrhead school have been getting results by ditching traditional maths-based learning in favour of more hands-on classroom work.

A pilot group of S2 pupils at St Luke’s High achieved impressive scores in a new Design, Engineer and Construct (DEC) course – the first ones to do so in East Renfrewshire. The DEC is a new qualification that offers teachers and learners the opportunity to develop a range of skills and knowledge fundamental to technical and professional aspects of the construction and built environment industry.

With support from local industry experts, each pupil had the responsibility of creating a proposal for a new eco-classroom to be situated on the grounds of St Luke’s High. Although it was all conceptual, pupils worked with various industry partners to create detailed proposals that would later be presented to the local community for consultation. Karen Hunter, depute headteacher at St Luke’s High, is full of praise for the young students, some of whom received a merit for their hard work.

“Approaching the curriculum creatively is a massive part of the St Luke’s culture,” she told the Barrhead News. “The group of pupils successfully passed the course, with a number of them receiving a merit for their hard work and dedication. “Well done from everyone at St Luke’s High.”

Kevin Ormond, principal teacher of STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths) at St Luke’s High, started the alternative curriculum two years ago in the hope of inspiring youngsters to pursue a career in the construction industry once they leave school. Among the companies to have supported the process as partners are BAM Construction, Gardiner & Theobald and Threesixty Architecture. St Luke’s High is the first school in East Renfrewshire to run the DEC qualification, which is comparable to that of a National 4 and National 6 certificate.
It is not a SQA-awarded national qualification but candidates are awarded credit points for potential credit transfer onto further study if required.

Marine Engineering Workshop⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

The Marine Engineering STEM Workshop was chosen to receive the Maritime UK STEM Award for 2019. The award recognizes the quality, hard work and dedication of the team in delivering workshops and promoting DYW and STEM as a route into engineering for pupils in schools throughout Scotland. Since starting the program 4 years ago, they have delivered the workshop to more than 26,000 pupils nationwide.

They have developed a new marine environmental engineering workshop that looks at our ocean plastics problem and how students and engineers can help to save our world’s marine wildlife. The workshop culminates in the students building a working submarine with the ability to retrieve materials from the ocean floor.

Their diary is now open for 2020/21/22 and they would like to give all Scottish schools the opportunity to book their free workshop.

MEP JP Buoyancy Workshop Flyer

Developing the Young Workforce – Early Learning & Childcare and Primary Focus⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

In order to support the implementation of DYW at early learning & childcare and primary school level we aim to bring together teachers, practitioners and DYW leads with experience and interest in this area to enter into a professional dialogue and collaboration.

The aim of the focus groups are to:
• share current practice and experiences;
• scope requirements to enhance DYW implementation in this area;
• develop support for teachers and practitioners.

We have set aside the following dates for workshops early in 2020:

23 January 2020 Glasgow
26 February 2020 Edinburgh
24 March 2020 Stirling

The meetings will be one day events and held in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stirling. You are only required to attend one of the workshops. We would be grateful if you could forward this information to relevant people from your authority/organisation, they can register their interest by sending a confirmation email to EDSDES@educationscotland.gov.scot stating their school, local authority and availability, by Thursday 19 December.

For more information please contact Peter.Murray@educationscotland,gov.scot (07780 225304)

Lochend Community High School: Developing the Young Workforce⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

At Lochend Community High school they strive to open up opportunities for all of young people regardless of ability or background. They have a strong focus on Developing the Young Workforce across the whole school and through their links with colleges, universities, employers, local business and other organisations. They want to embed work related learning opportunities across the whole school. They continue to expand and develop skills through a range of activities in and out of the classroom with a particular focus on ‘closing the gap’. They are empowering young people to develop their skills for Life, Learning and Work. This strategy involves establishing ever-increasing local, regional, national and global partnerships to support all curricular areas to provide real- life contexts for learning.

How have they done this?

Working with young people and partners to embed opportunities and developing skills across the curriculum.

Enhance young peoples understanding of different career routes ,offering curricular programmes and regular engagement with employers.

Actively collaborate with partners to develop and deliver a curriculum that supports the development of young peoples employability and career management skills.

Reviewing the work placement model in line with the ‘Work Placement Standard’,creating bespoke opportunities tailored to the needs of all young people.

Careers Events
Allowing  young people to find out about potential employers. Young people have the opportunity to talk directly with representatives from industry and education.

HE/FE Fairs
Partnerships with City of Glasgow, Glasgow Clyde, Glasgow Kelvin, West College Scotland, GCU, UWS, UoG, Strathclyde, Stirling and Glasgow School of Art. Each year group has a short presentation and an opportunity to meet with the Further and Higher Education representatives to ask  questions about courses, entry requirements and education beyond school in general.  Parents of senior phase young people are invited to attend.

Mock Interviews
All young people are given interview skills training and mock interviews from their business partners.

Salters Chemistry Festival
In partnership with University of Glasgow, Salters Chemistry and Royal Society of Chemistry, young people are given experience of working in a working laboratory carrying out investigations and experiments.

Chemistry Careers Event
In partnership with Glasgow Science Centre, UWS and Royal Society of Chemistry young people learn about laboratory techniques, discuss career pathways and alternative routes into careers in Chemistry

STEM Glasgow/Jacobs Engineering Challenge
In partnership with DYW Glasgow, West Partnership, Glasgow City Council and Jacobs Engineering young people are involved in real life engineering challenges. Working  with partners to create a solution to plastic pollution while investigating and learning about careers in the sector.

Go4Set
Young people have the opportunity to develop skills, inform subject choice and change perceptions about STEM, raising awareness of how studying STEM related subjects can lead to rewarding careers.

SmartSTEMs
In partnership with Glasgow Kelvin College young people explore STEM related careers with input from various organisations. Young people take part in practical activities to enhance skills and knowledge of STEM based careers.

Science Club
In partnership with STEM Ambassadors S1 young people are involved in weekly activities which promote learning and careers in STEM.  Links are made to STEM careers and young people are encouraged to explore and research  career pathways.

Numeracy Week
Making links between numeracy used in subjects across the school and how numeracy is used in the world of work. Using partners such as credit unions, Barclays Bank, Santander, Mott McDonald, NHS, Marks and Spencer to showcase Maths in the world of work.

Apprenticeship Tests
Young people have the opportunity to learn and practice numeracy tests for apprenticeships, colleges and universities.

P7 Maths Challenge
Young people work in teams to learn about Maths in the world of work.

ScotBeef/Aldi 
Young people working collaboratively,  researching existing products and designing a new product to present as part of the competition. The winners will have their product marketed, displayed and sold in Aldi stores across the country.

Quality Meat Scotland Chef Visit
Chef visit to work with S2 young people, demonstrating and embedding skills as well as sharing their experience of working in the hospitality industry

ZooLab Junk Bus
Delivered in partnership with Zoolab Junk Bus young people learn about the production of some of our favourite foods.

GHA/ Loretto Afternoon Tea
Partnership with Glasgow Housing Association and Loretto Housing allowed young people to work with local partners  and allowed an opportunity to experience working in this sector.

Future Textiles
Developing an understanding of the textile industry and the available progressions pathways.

Marks and Spencer – Work Placement Programme.
The partnership was set up to strengthen the link between employers and young people, building  confidence and supporting the transition between school and the workplace.

30 young people have had the opportunity to apply and experience a work placement in the retail sector. Many young people have secured part time jobs as a result of the experience.

Glasgow Kelvin College Pathway
As part of the S2 options process, young people will be offered the opportunity to attend Kelvin College for one afternoon per week throughout the school session. This partnership programme allows young people to participate in a college based course alongside their school studies. This will not only enrich their learning experiences but will provide them with qualifications in the form of SCQF Level 4 units. Young people enrolled in these courses will also be considered as an internal applicant for any further courses.

RUTS
RUTS aims to equip young people with the confidence and skills, raising their aspirations. RUTS are currently delivering a bespoke personal development/employability, this is achieved through motorcycle and bicycle based programmes tailored to the individual needs of the young people.

NHS @ Work
Young people S1-S6 have the opportunity to attend an NHS@Work Event showcasing the careers available within the NHS, dispelling some of the myths about working in the NHS.

Widening Participation
Educational support and guidance programme designed to widen access to higher education.

FARE
FARE are a voluntary organisation based in Easterhouse . They work with communities to improve the lives of children and families. FARE are employed within the school, engaging with a number of projects and programmes that link to the DYW agenda.

Young Enterprise Company Programme –
The Company Programme is the ultimate business experience for S5 and S6 young people. They set up and run their own company and develop a range of skills throughout this entrepreneurial experience.

Career Ready
Career Ready is a programme that prepares young people for the world of work. The model links young people to employers through master classes, mentoring, workplace visits and internships.

EY Foundation partnership
EY Foundation is a charity that works directly with disadvantaged young people,employers and social entrepreneurs to create and support routes into education, employment and enterprise. They support the school in world of work events, mock interviews and industry presentations. They also have a paid work experience programme called Smart Futures.

Skills Academy
Working with a range of business partners, young people who are studying less than two National 5 qualifications are invited to attend a programme that helps develop crucial knowledge and understanding of the world of work.

Flexible Work Placement Model
Lochend  offer a flexible approach to work placements, encouraging and supporting young people to source and secure their own work placement . There are also targeted placement opportunities available on WorkIT and via our business partners which are available to all young people.

Departmental DYW displays 
Displaying potential careers and pathways relevant to their own curricular area. The Pupil Leadership Team have created a number of notice boards around the school to promote the DYW agenda. The boards also include live job/apprenticeship and work placement opportunities.

Lochend CHS Skills Framework
They established a systematic and progressive skills development framework that will be used across learning. Young people will have the opportunity to reflect on these on an on-going basis and incorporate them into their profiling activities. The Skills Framework will be displayed throughout the school.

During the academic year all staff took part in CLPL around the DYW agenda.  Staff received an introduction to the Career Education Standards and an introduction to labour market Information.

Social Media
All information relating to DYW and employability is advertised on Facebook and the DYW Twitter page. Parents engaged regularly with posts on Facebook which ensured that parents/carers/guardians were more aware of the range of opportunities and supports available.

Work Inspiration Visits
Young people have has the opportunity to experience the world of work and to find out more about career pathways:

Art Galleries Hilton Hotel Group IBIS Hotel Group
UK parliament Engie GHA
Auchenlea Building Site TIGERS Construction Training STV
Glasgow Film Theatre National Theatre of Scotland Platform @ The Bridge
Emirates Arena Braehead Shopping Centre BBC Scotland
Glasgow Fort Marks and Spencer Glasgow Kelvin College
City of Glasgow College Glasgow Caledonian University FARE
Glasgow Life

Next Steps
Increase the number of MWOW ambassadors

Engage in  more profiling support

Recording achievements using My World of Work

DYW newsletter

Parental Engagement

Quotation
“I developed so much confidence from taking part in a lot of these activities. I have met so many great people who have helped nurture me and give me the platform to learn. I have so many more contacts now than I did before.”
Young Person

Portlethen Academy: Raising the profile of skills in learning and teaching.⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

Every classroom has a poster for Skills for Learning, Skills for Life and Skills for Work. Pupil-friendly definitions of these skills were produced by a working group of staff. Teachers are asked to make reference to these skills in their learning intentions and success criteria and in the content of the lesson itself. The impact of DYW is discussed in the videos:

All S1 pupils are recording the development of these skills in a Skills Passport booklet during DCT. The main purpose of the booklet is to help the pupils document the skills they are developing, the subjects in which they use these skills and the evidence they have to support their judgements on how well they are progressing with particular skills in learning, life and work. The booklet also includes sections on profiling, SMART targets, reflection, mental health, recognising wider achievement, subject reports and self-evaluation.

The school has used several key methods to ensure that the strategy has the desired impact to the learners:

  • Researched examples of skills frameworks and received valuable input from Larbert High School after seeing their materials on the National Improvement Hub
  • Decided to develop their version of a skills framework and to link it to their tutor time programme for tracking purposes
  • Established a staff team to develop the framework and materials
  • Introduced the focus on skills to staff at collegiate session.
  • Introduced the focus on skills to pupils at year group assemblies.
  • Produced a set of posters for every classroom
  • Obtained feedback on reference to skills for learning, life and work through pupil focus groups where 5 pupils are selected from various year groups once a week.

The school believes that the changes have impacted on their learners, the key indicators:

  • Promoted skills development in learning and teaching
  • Ensure staff are consistently embedding skills development in their classroom practice
  • Ensure pupils know what skills they possess
  • Helping pupils develop the ability to confidently articulate the skills they are developing
  • Ensure pupils can utilise these skills across different subject areas
  • Ensure pupils realise the value and importance of skills they develop in school and how these relate to the world of work

This is a journey for staff and young people, the key points are:

  • Staff are referencing skills development in their lesson planning
  • Pupils are noticing the increased focus on skills and realising the value as they progress through the school
  • Pupils are becoming more aware of how often they are using different skills
  • Pupils are realising the value of transferrable skills
  • Pupils are realising the importance of skills for their future careers

It has allowed them to monitor it through their focus groups, and they can reference it more easily due to the visual nature of their posters. When they have speakers or reference areas of employment in their career of the week they ensure skills are highlighted.

Portlethen are working hard on partnership and engagement with industry. Curricular experiences through DYW include:

Breadth of careers
Mock interviews
Rural skills
Air traffic control
NHS
Enterprise day (S2)
Micro Tyco
MWOW ambassadors
Hospitality (chef of the week, Royal navy chefs)

Porthlethen see DYW as integral and underpin out their work with young people by making the links between skills and the workplace. They refer to the school as just another workplace, which reinforces the link between education and skills for work. The skills framework has helped by providing a clear focus.

  • Having a visual display of the skills you are focusing on
  • Reference skills in all aspects of the lesson where appropriate
  • Help pupils realise the range of skills they possess
  • Ensure pupils know which skills they are developing
  • Help pupils transfer these skills to different contexts and subject areas

Next Steps
They have started formally recording and documenting skills development and progression in S1. They are looking at creative ways to record and document skills development as the cohort become more mature and progress through the school. They will formalise the inclusion of skills development in lesson planning, learning intentions and success criteria to ensure a consistent approach by all staff.

“I like the framework because I can click on it and see what it means” S1 pupil

“Having the framework on your website helped me link my presentation to the skills required to work in the catering industry in a way that pupils could understand”  DYW presenter.

“The framework diagrams give me a key point of reference in planning lessons and for reference in class.” Teacher