Our social conscience is something that is very important in our business. We are passionate about the social impact we make. As a small business we don’t have the financial resources to help worthwhile causes as much as we’d like. In addition, we try to help in other ways by giving up some of our time. This is why it’s so important to us to work with Developing Young Workforce.
We support a number of good causes and one area which we are proactively involved with is Developing Young Workforce (DYW) and also supporting local schools. Shannon works behind the scenes on some content for the DYW app. The rest of the team support local high schools with mock interviews, preparing for work and CV support. I’m a Business Advisor with Young Enterprise Scotland and support senior students at Beath High on their enterprise projects.
Supporting Pupils During Lockdown
As the schools have been closed, we realised that the pupils would be missing out on this valuable support. This is already a really difficult time for school kids, especially those that may be leaving school not knowing what the future holds.
We decided to do some remote support so that high school pupils across Fife (and further afield) could continue to learn about how to prepare for interviews etc.
Calum created a video on this subject, which is available on the DYW app for school pupils to access. We have also offered our services to support any school leavers via group video calls or on a 1-1 basis to ensure they’re not missing out on valuable learning. It’s important the workforce of the future is prepared for the world of work. It’s also important for them to get the best possible chance, and we want to do our bit to support.
You can watch the video here. If you have any of your own children or relatives want some advice or guidance from us, who are not engaged with DYW, then we’re happy to help.
Helping Youth to Reach Their Full Potential
I’m passionate about doing what we can to support school pupils and school leavers. I was fortunate when I left school that someone took a chance on me. I had no interest in going to university and didn’t really know what I wanted to do.
Babcock ran a programme for trade apprentices very successfully and then offered something similar for office-based roles. I applied for one of those types of positions. The plan was you’d get 6 months in HR, 6 months in Finance, 6 months in IT etc and at the end you’d have good work experience and a qualification from the local college.
At the beginning of my career, I got lucky. My first stint was in HR (or Personnel and Industrial Relations as it was back then!) and the management team saw something in me. I spent my time in HR, completing the training programme and also the Certificate in Personnel Practice with the CIPD. In addition, I learned loads about HR and Employee Relations and spent over 5 years there. That helped shape my career.
Had someone not taken that chance on me, who knows where my career would have taken me.
The message here is give young people a chance. We’re hearing locally that some apprenticeships are being withdrawn. Please only do this as a last resort, if you can find a place for an apprentice do what you can. There are various graduate and vocational apprenticeship schemes available.
Support Developing Young Workforce
If you can’t offer apprenticeships in your business but can help in other ways, DYW is a great place to start. We often hear about skill shortages from clients – if the next generation don’t get their chance, then we’re going to be faced with the same problem.
Contact us now to find out more.