Agenda item

Presentation by Service Director Children and Young People.

            The Chairman welcomed Mr Campbell Wilson, Head Teacher at Peebles High School who was in attendance to make a presentation on how the school was working towards the Developing the Young Workforce agenda.  Mr Wilson provided some statistics as background to his presentation, advising that in 2014, 427 young people had actively sought Jobseekers Allowance.  In 2015, that figure had dropped to 198 young people.  Mr Wilson went on to explain that, since 2010, Peebles High School had been one the highest attaining schools in the country with a number of its pupils attaining 5 Highers or more however, this was not matched by the number of positive destinations for those pupils.  He explained that not all young people wished to go on to university or other further education immediately after leaving school.  The challenge for the school and the Council was to increase the number of positive destinations, identifying other Work Based Learning routes available to pupils to achieve their goals and finding workplaces which could provide positive experiences for around 250 young people each year.  Included in Mr Wilson's presentation were interviews with young people who had opted not to go to university straight from school.  One pupil had joined a local legal firm which could eventually lead to a position as a Paralegal, professional Cashier or a Law Society Solicitor.  Another pupil had undertaken a work placement in a local charity shop and was currently developing skills in all aspects of retail business. 

8.2       Mr Wilson explained that the school and the pupils worked together to identify the best route for achieving a positive destination for each individual then discussions were scheduled with partners to put in place the Work Based Learning opportunities.  The Service Director Children and Young People advised Members that a further report and Business Plan would be presented to the Executive Committee in due course.  She went on to emphasise the importance of information exchanges between local communities and schools and asked that Members help by sharing the information about Work Based Learning within their local areas and passing any messages from the community back to the school/department.  Ms Manson also advised that further information on the Work Based Learning opportunities available in each area would be collated and circulated to Members.  Courses such as Accessing Housing were made available to pupils during their senior stage at school and discussion followed in relation to developing and utilising partnerships nationally/outwith the area.  Funding from the Scottish Government had made provision for the creation of a Developing the Young Workforce officer post.  This position had now been filled for over two months and a range of work was in progress, including identifying and sharing Best Practice.  Mr Wilson advised that the number of pupils taking a gap year before deciding on their future destination had increased.  He acknowledged that further work was now required to help young people make it a valuable experience as part of planning for their futures after the gap year.  The Chairman thanked Mr Wilson for an extremely interesting and informative presentation.

DECISION

NOTED the report.

            MEMBERS

            Councillor Brown left the meeting prior to consideration of the following item of business and Councillor Bell left the meeting during consideration of the following item of business.