Provider: John Muir Trust
The John Muir Trust’s main engagement initiative is the John Muir Award - a national environmental award scheme that encourages people to connect with,… more
Provider: Sea Cadets
The Sea Cadet Achievement, Teamwork and Citizenship Award has been developed thrpugh Lowland Reserve FCA specifically to enhance the employability of… more
Provider: Army Cadets
The Army Cadet Achievement, Teamwork and Citizenship Award has been developed thrpugh Lowland Reserve RFCA specifically to enhance the… more
Sandy Begbie, Global Integration Director at Standard Life Aberdeen plc and Chair of DYW Edinburgh, East Lothian and Midlothian, outlines why it is important for employers to recognise and value the employability skills developed through youth award programmes.
Read MoreBaqar, 16, from Glasgow, suddenly found himself two years ago transported from Iraq to Scotland, unable to speak any English.
Shy and reserved, Baqar struggled to integrate at school and found communication with his peers and engagement with the curriculum extremely difficult. Consequently, he had few friends and became increasingly isolated both in class and at break times.
Baqar joined The Prince’s Trust Achieve programme in school which offers students the chance to try industry taster days, giving them practical experience across different sectors to inspire their career choice. This gave Baqar the opportunity to build up communication and team working skills and to start thinking about what he wanted to do after he left school.
The programme focussed on personal development and at first, Baqar found it difficult to participate. However, a visit to a local technology business, Artronix transformed his progress. At Artronix, he was desperate to get started on the electronics challenge. Not only was he first to finish but he was able to help others in the team who were struggling.
It became clear that Baqar’s main barrier to educational success was his language skills so The Trust provided specialist tuition. Baqar really began to shine. He took part in the Achieve programme’s enterprise challenge and achieved the top score. At the regional final, he was able to give a presentation in front of a large audience.
He says, “Now I can speak to my friends and understand my lessons which I couldn’t do before I went to The Prince’s Trust.”
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