Work Aware and Construction Aware
By Nicholas Carroll, Senior Programme Executive, Developing the Young Workforce Glasgow
As an employer led initiative with young people at the heart, Developing the young Workforce has consistently sought to work with partners to identify opportunities to create innovative and pro-active projects which develop the aspirations and skills of school pupils with a view to tackle inequality and skills gaps in the labour market across a range of sectors and roles.
In the past year we have flipped our approach on its head and bring DYW activity to those who are not attending school and arguably are the ones that need it most, by providing a unique opportunity for these young people to gain practical and classroom-based experience in a variety job roles and support next steps towards further/higher education and the world of work.
‘Work Aware’ sees S4 pupils from several schools undertake a series of visits to employers who have entry level roles from McDonalds to Jewson and the Novotel and many more, all supplemented by specific ‘meta-skills’ employability sessions. These visits range from hospitality and catering to financial and legal services, performing arts and cultural heritage to housing and retail and much more besides, giving young people exposure to people, places and jobs that they would otherwise not have exposure to.
Participants are those most at risk from disengagement with education and in our pilot programme, of the 90 participants, all had under 25% attendance at school yet displayed upwards of 80% attendance at these sessions.
Employer feedback from this has been wholly positive as this allows employers to offer intensive support over the course of the year but with light touch in terms of staff time and resource in any operating period, likewise, feedback from pupils has been incredible with young people asking to be included in the next year and enquiring as to whether this could be a subject choice for them going forward!
This has led to the development of a sector model called ‘Construction Aware’, an ambitious project designed at raising awareness and providing practical experience of the variety of roles within construction and the built environment sector. The programme is supported by CITB and Landsec and is delivered in partnership with FARE Scotland. It has been co-designed with organisations such as Robertson Construction, McTaggart Construction, CCG, A.C. Whyte, Sibbald, RJ McLeod, COWI, Glasgow Education Services and pupils themselves over the course of the last six months.
Interest in careers in the built environment has declined, coupled with an ageing workforce and demand for infrastructure to support our transition to net zero, there is a need to inspire young people to enter the sector. This unique design allows employers to showcase their own organisation and sector as a whole with sessions timetabled and designed so that each employer facilitates a volume of delivery suitable for them at times of the year which are best with support built in from DYW, GCC education and third sector partner staff such as FARE Scotland and Bluevale Community Club.
Having been involved in various employability projects over the last 20 years I am confident that these projects meet a real industry need bridging curriculum learning with employability skills development and tangible, practical based on-site experiences which pupils can quickly immerse themselves in and relate to their current skills and learning.
We are currently receiving applications from employers to get involved so if you would like to find out more, please contact us at dyw@glasgowchamberofcommerce.com
