Hundreds More to Benefit from School Leavers Work Programme

14 June 2012

Hundreds of youngsters are set to benefit from a training programme which is helping school leavers find work.

The Schools Careers Industry Partnership (SCIP) Programme has been running for the past three years in every secondary school in Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire.

The scheme, which is partially funded by the area’s local authorities and through sponsorship from 11 oil and gas and subsea companies from across the region, gives teenagers a helping hand in making the transition from leaving school into employment.

Alastair Fraser, director of Coaching Training Consultancy who run the programme, said they hope to help an additional 500 youngsters next year.

He said: "We hope to be able to increase the capacity in the schools we operate in by about 50% in this next year 2012/13.

"We have worked with about 820 school leavers to date but with the increased funding we should be able to help around 500 next year alone.”

Mr Fraser added: "What we find is there is an awful lot of youngsters who don’t know what they have to offer and if they do know they are not particularly confident in selling it.

"The programme is about understanding your strengths and knowing how to market yourself, either on paper or in an interview. The companies who sponsor the programme also come along and explain what sort of jobs they have at their companies and what they are looking for from people.”

Earlier this year car firm Arnold Clark described many young Scots as "unsuitable" for work with its training firm GTG saying that 81% of 2280 applicants to its apprenticeship scheme were not employable. However Mr Fraser thinks there are plenty of youngsters who are fit for work.

He added: "Essentially they were saying that youngsters aren’t used to work or fit to work. Our experience in working with more than 800 young people is that they need help and support to sell themselves well.

"It’s hardly surprising that Arnold Clark says that they don’t sell themselves well. In that we are possibly in agreement but how we differ is that we are proposing a solution.”