Message from Maria Walker, Director

of Education & Children’s Services

I very much welcome this current edition of the newsletter.

In the following pages there are many examples of just how well schools and the Work Placement Unit support young people in the world of work. I hope that the articles give you some good ideas and I commend the newsletter to you.

Work Placement Unitnewsletter 2014/2015

What’s inside:Page 3 The Sky’s the Limit for High Flying Andrew!

Page 4 Police Scotland ‘Education Working For All!’

Page 5 Aberdeenshire Council – Apprenticeships

Page 6 Career Academies UK

Page 8 OPITO Work Placement WeekPage 9 The New Qualifications

Page 10 Scottish Traditional Skills Training Centre Inspiring the Future

Page 11 A Day in the Life of a Health & Safety Workplace Assessor

Aberdeen’s iconic Beach Ballroom was the venue for “Working Together for Our Future Workforce” business breakfast which was held on Friday 13th June.

The theme of the free event was to promote and celebrate business engagement with young people in Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire. Invitations were issued to companies and organisations which had previously offered work experience placements, with a press advert and a press release also helping to generate interest.

The response was very encouraging with over 150

people registering to attend including Cllr Jim Gifford, Leader of Aberdeenshire Council; Cllr Jenny Laing, Leader of Aberdeen City Council; Cllr Isobel Davidson, Chair of Aberdeenshire Council’s Education & Children’s Services Committee; Maria Walker, Director of Education & Children’s Services at Aberdeenshire Council; Gayle Gorman, Director of Education, Culture & Sport at Aberdeen City Council as well as many

representatives from the business community, the third sector and educational establishments across Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire.

The chair for the event was Alec Carstairs, President of Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce with the keynote speakers being Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce’s chief executive, Robert Collier, and Sylvia Halkerston, consultant and commissioner on Sir Ian Wood’s ‘Commission for Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce’

Aberdeenshire’s Provost, Jill Webster, gave the welcome address when the event started at 8.15am after which delegates were shown a video presentation featuring clips of Aberdeenshire pupils filmed on location talking about their work placements.

Aberdeenshire’s CfE Officer, Alison Robertson, gave a presentation on “Curriculum for Excellence – the Changing Face of Education” while pupils from Aberdeen City schools featured in another video presentation with the topic of “Business in the Curriculum.”

The Lord Provost of Aberdeen, George Adam, closed the event at 9.45am.

Pupils from Kincorth and Portlethen Academies were in attendance to assist with the registration of delegates among other tasks which they performed very capably.

Feedback from those who attended the event was very favourable, with a number of new workplace opportunities being generated.

Among the pupils present at the business breakfast was Christina Polson who had recently completed a work placement as a Business Process Assistant at Cove-based oil services company, Hydrasun. Christina, a pupil at Portlethen Academy, found the experience to be extremely rewarding. She said, “Through work experience I discovered that businesses are willing to pay for a service they can rely on. If you do a job well you can get rewarded. I really enjoyed it.”

From left to right: Christina Polson, David Grant (Hydrasun machine shop engineer), Robyn Scott (Hydrasun HR administrator) and Alex Reid (Hydrasun’s Group Environmental Co-ordinator)

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The Sky’s the Limit for High Flying Andrew!Andrew Baird of Peterhead Academy did his work placement with Eastern Airways (IAC Operations) and had a very worthwhile and interesting experience.

Andrew Baird of Peterhead Academy did his work placement with Eastern Airways (IAC Operations) and had a very worthwhile and interesting experience.

He spent time in all departments including traffic, check-in, flight operations, information desk, assisting with boarding and disembarking passengers. He was introduced to standby flight deck crew who explained flight planning, landing and take off restrictions.

Eastern Airways (IAC Operations) continues to support Aberdeenshire Council and provides work placements to pupils on a regular basis and they fully understand the importance of how this can help our pupils make correct and informed career choices.

“Andrew showed a high willingness to be involved in the operation. I am sure he left us with a good insight of the whole operation and what it is like to work in the aviation industry”

Gordon Smith, IAC Operations Supervisor.

“My time spent with the flight crew was fascinating. The highlight of my week was when I was given special approval to sit on the jump-seat in the cockpit with flight crew during a return flight to

Scatsta in Shetland. This experience has made me more determined to fulfil my ambition of becoming a Commercial Airline Pilot”

Andrew Baird, Peterhead Academy

Andrew is currently in S6 studying Advanced Highers. During the summer holidays he completed a number of theory exams before passing his final flying exam and gaining his Private Pilot’s Licence (PPL). Getting his PPL is an important step in fulfilling his ambition of becoming a commercial pilot.

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‘Education Working For All!’ – Final Report of the Wood Commission“Business and industry must be encouraged to work with education and young people, and vice versa, to establish relationships which will benefit both young people and employers.”

Tuesday 3rd June saw the publication of the final report of the Wood Commission on Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce.

‘Education Working for All!’ highlights the vital role of business and industry both to enhance the quality of the education experience and provide better knowledge of careers and the workplace, as well as offering more young people employment straight out of education.

The report’s wide ranging set of recommendations cover the following areas:

In May 2012, Grampian Police introduced a new course aimed at giving pupils, above the age of 15, an insight into how they operated and to show them what is involved in applying for and training to be a police constable. The course has continued to be offered by Police Scotland which was formally established on 1 April 2013 and is responsible for policing across the length and

breadth of Scotland. Four courses are offered each year at Nelson Street Police Station, Aberdeen and each course accommodates a maximum of fourteen pupils. Places are offered to pupils at schools in Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City and at the private schools in Aberdeen.

Each course covers an overview of the cadet scheme, the dog unit, road safety, scenes of crime, the underwater search unit and includes visits to the Force Service Centre, Control Room and cells. Demand for places from pupils in Aberdeenshire has been high with more than one hundred pupils

applying for our initial allocation of places!

The courses have been a huge success, with pupils particularly pleased to receive an individual student assessment report. Two pupils from one school commented:

“We both agreed it was a fantastic four days, which were packed with exciting talks, visits and people. Everybody was so welcoming and we learned a great deal from our week, which has made us even more determined to join the police in the future.”

» Better preparing school leavers for the world of work

» College education focusing on employment and progression in learning

» Modern Apprenticeships focusing on higher

level skills and industry needs

» More employers engaging with education and recruiting more young people

» Advancing equality within Scottish education and youth employment.

The report also recognises that a greater focus on employability was among the original aims of Curriculum for Excellence and suggests that this trend must continue.

The full report can be viewed at: www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2014/06/4089/downloads

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Work Experience Led to Modern Apprenticeship

Colin McRae, a pupil at The Gordon Schools, found his work placement with Aberdeenshire Council’s ICT Service to be invaluable in shaping his future career.

Colin added all the work experience he gained into a blog and submitted the blog’s URL to ICT as part of his application for a modern apprenticeship. His application was successful and he has now completed the first year of his modern apprenticeship with Networks and Infrastructure.

Colin said of his work placement:

“I knew I wanted a career in IT and decided to seek some work experience to help me decide what area of IT I would prefer.

Before applying for my apprenticeship I had completed 4 weeks work experience, 3 of these were with Aberdeenshire Council in the following departments:

Desktop Management Team, ICT Service Desk 1st and 2nd Level, Service Access Team, Service

Desk Curricular, Networks & Server Teams and the Learning through Technology Team.

The other week was with Aker Solutions in Dyce with the Graphic Design Team.

My work experience helped me gain a working knowledge of different types of hardware, software, problem solving and also helped me secure this apprenticeship.”

In line with our commitment to the employment of young people, Aberdeenshire Council has implemented an ongoing programme of Apprenticeships across a variety of occupational areas. These have expanded from the traditional 4 year apprenticeships offered by the Council in positions such as electrician, joiner and painter to include the new style 1 and 2 year Modern Apprenticeships in positions such as Home Care, ICT and administration.

Our Apprentices ‘earn as they learn’, undertaking their work duties, gaining valuable work experience in a busy environment and work towards an industry recognised qualification.

We now have over 50 Apprentices and are keen to increase this number across the Council.

For further information contact the Recruitment Team on 01224 664455 or email recruitment.team@aberdeenshire.gov.uk.

Aberdeenshire Council – Apprenticeships

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Career Academies UKCareer Academies UK is an ambitious business-led charity that helps raise young people’s aspirations and life chances by bridging the gap between education and work by giving them

access to real experience of the world of work.

Career Academy students follow a rigorous two-year enrichment programme, that compliments their school studies and consists of a five week paid internship, being matched to a mentor from business who supports them through S5 and S6, a masterclass programme along with networking and visits to a range of employers.

The programme has been supporting students in other parts of the UK for over 12 years but is fairly new to the North East with our first set of students completing their first year and internships prior to entering Year 2 and S6 in August 2014. The programme in the North East is supported by BP and both Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Councils and runs jointly across the two areas. Approximately 10 students from each school are selected following application and interview to take part and five schools are currently involved. In Aberdeenshire, Peterhead Academy, Portlethen Academy and The Gordon Schools (along with Kincorth and Oldmachar Academies in Aberdeen city) are in the first phase and the next cohort of students from the schools will be involved as part of a rolling programme.

Pictured at the Sparrows Offshore Career Academies Internship presentation are from left to right: Gillian McGeough (Principal Design Engineer & Mentor), Basirun Hassan (C.A. intern, Oldmachar Academy), Stella Ugbehe (Project Engineer & Buddy for C.A. intern), Olivia Anderson (C.A. intern, Oldmachar Academy), Malcolm Costigane (Senior Design Draughtsman & Buddy for C.A. intern), Dale Wakelin (C.A. intern, Peterhead Academy) and Douglas Ewen (Project Engineer & Buddy for C.A. intern).

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Career Academies UKFollowing discussion between schools and the local authority, students from Mintlaw, Mackie and Meldrum Academies will begin the programme from August 2014. From an initial 50 students, there will be 110 students (and mentors) involved in the programme from August 2014, with the additional three schools from Aberdeenshire beginning planning for students joining in August 2015. This growth is replicated across Scotland as more local authorities come on board. In addition to providing mentors, local companies are also providing the paid internships for five weeks (comprising the final week of the summer term and four weeks in July) and in 2015 this will mean 550 weeks of paid Internship experience.

In the North East, the Regional Manager for Career Academies is Isobel Maughan isobel.maughan@careeracademies.org.uk.

One of the companies which has provided invaluable support to the Career Academies programme in the North East is Sparrows Offshore Group Ltd.

For the first phase in 2013/14, three pupils were placed with Sparrows for support and mentoring: Olivia Anderson and Basirun Hassan from Oldmachar Academy in the city and Dale Wakelin from Peterhead Academy.

As part of their internship they had to give a presentation showing what they had been doing over the five weeks.

The presentations were held on Wednesday 30th July at Sparrows’ Foveran House complex in Bridge of Don. Those attending included their mentors as well as colleagues which they’d worked alongside during their internship as well as teacher co-ordinators from the schools and parents.

All three pupils gave excellent presentations which reflected the breadth of experience and support

they’d had during their time with Sparrows, with Dale Wakelin giving a very detailed summary of the many steps involved in the design and fabrication process of a lifting attachment (“pad eye”) which he’d been involved with. He felt the internship experience had given him an insight into what his career could be on leaving school (draughtsman or design engineer) and he also said being on the internship had made him “feel motivated every morning.”

Another pupil who took part in an internship with Career Academies was Sarah Smith from The Gordon Schools.

Sarah’s internship was with the Human Resources team at Halliburton. Her project involved working with staff in the organisation to examine the impact of the acquisition of Red Spider Technology by Halliburton using questionnaires, focus groups, and interviews to collate responses and to make recommendations to improve training and support during the acquisition process. The recommendations are being collated and presented to the Mergers and Acquisitions Group at Halliburton. During her internship Sarah was mentored by Emma Thomson, HR Advisor.

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OPITO Work Placement Week

From left to right: Connor Gray (Ellon Academy), Morven Spalding (OPITO), David Currie (Aker Solutions) and Rebecca Kelman (Ellon Academy).

More than 100 Aberdeen City and Shire school pupils were given a unique, behind the scenes look into some the largest oil and gas industry operators and service companies as part of an innovative, first of its kind, structured work placement programme – funded and managed by oil and gas organisation, OPITO.

The students, all of whom had just entered S5, interacted with staff at Aker Solutions, Nexen, BP, Total and Transocean as well as University of Aberdeen, exploHUB and Robert Gordon University, Energy Centre to see how different sectors, companies and disciplines come together to form the oil and gas industry.

Throughout the week the pupils discovered how exploration and production operators find, extract

and process hydrocarbons. They also examined the range of onshore and offshore roles, gained hands-on geology experience and tried out cyber drilling simulators.

The pupils also participated in a series of workshops with Urquhart Partnership to learn important professional skills such as CV writing and interview techniques to prepare them for starting on their career paths. Pupils also took part in a supply chain simulation exercise with OGAS, the Oil and Gas Academy for Scotland.

Feedback from pupils has been very positive and OPITO will be running another Structured Work Placement Week in June 2015. For more information please contact Vivien Ellins on 01224 787862 or viven.ellins@opito.com

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The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) has designed and developed new National Qualifications to support Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), which introduced a new way of learning to schools and colleges. The

The table below shows how the new National Qualifications will replace previous and existing qualifications:

SCQF Level New National Qualification

Replaces Previous/existing National Qualification

1 National 1 > Access 1

2 National 2 > Access 2

3 National 3 > Access 3 Standard Grade (Foundation level)

4 National 4 > Standard Grade (General level); Intermediate 1

5 National 5 > Standard Grade (Credit level); Intermediate 2

6 Higher (new) > Higher

7 Advanced Higher (new)

> Advanced Higher

» Standard Grade exam results were issued for the last time in August 2013.

» The first young people to leave school with the new National 1, National 2, National 3, National 4 and/or National 5 qualifications did so in June 2014.

» August 2014 saw the introduction of the new Higher while the new Advanced Higher will be introduced in August 2015.The new Higher is being introduced over the next 2 school sessions – new Higher and existing Higher will run concurrently for this session only. The 2 versions of the Higher have exactly the same value.

» Courses at National 2, National 3 and National 4 will not be graded. They will be assessed as Pass or fail by teachers and lecturers in schools and colleges.

» Courses at National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher will be marked externally by SQA and graded A to D or “No Award”.

» All Courses will contain Units that are assessed and marked throughout the year by teachers and lecturers, just as they are currently. These are assessed as Pass or Fail in all National Qualifications.

» If a Course assessment is failed (“No Award”), credit will still be given for the Units achieved at that level.

new qualifications will help young people to demonstrate the knowledge, understanding and skills they have developed at school or college and enable them to prepare for further learning, training and employment.

The New Qualifications

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The Scottish Traditional Skills Training Centre’s Secondary Schools Programme provides an outstanding opportunity for the young people attending to gain valuable work experience and skills training in a learning environment ideally suited to meeting their requirements and aspirations.

As well as gaining highly useful skills and work experience, the Centre’s Secondary Schools Courses, can contribute greatly to increasing the confidence and wellbeing of our Students, many of which, for a number of reason have become disengaged with the learning process.

In addition to the personal benefits provided to our Students, this highly successful and innovative programme, which is the first of its kind in the UK, is particularly relevant to the needs of our local rural community - which like many others in Scotland, faces specific challenges in retaining its young people. This is demonstrated by the fact that those with significant academic achievement often leave, not to return, due to a lack of appropriate work. While those whose

potential lies in skilled manual labour are not trained to a standard that matches either their potential or the specific requirements of the local marketplace. The cost to the rural economy as well as the future wellbeing of our local community, resulting from this combination of mismatch and low expectations, should not be underestimated.

The value of the programme is further demonstrated by the number of students who have secured employment, that not only aligns with their ability and potential, but also relates to the work experience and skills training received from attending the Scottish Traditional Skills Training Centre’s Secondary Schools Skills Courses.

Scottish Traditional Skills Training Centre

Inspiring the FutureInspiring the Future is a free service with volunteers from all sectors and professions going into schools and colleges to talk about their jobs and sectors. Anyone can volunteer with Inspiring the Future - you can be a young Apprentice, graduate recruit or a seasoned Chief Executive.

Volunteers will be required to commit to no more than one session per year which on average lasts 1-2 hours.

For more information please visit www.inspiringthefuture.org.

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A Day in the Life of a Health & Safety Workplace Assessor

Aberdeenshire Council employees two H&S Workplace Assessors (WPAs). They spend the majority of their time travelling throughout Aberdeenshire, visiting various companies in order to assess their suitability to take school pupils for work experience. Below Jackie and Maggie describe a typical day.

“The types of businesses visited are very varied, so a day can consist of going to premises as diverse as vets, engineering workshops, beauty salons, restaurants, garages and of course the oil industry. It’s pretty much a case of you think of a job, we’ll have done a visit for it!

We make contact with the employer to arrange a visit, usually a week in advance, in order to fill our diaries for the following week. Obviously we try and get a whole day in one area, rather than travelling from pillar to post.

Once a visit has been agreed, we prepare our paperwork – a Job Description (JD) detailing the

Pictured above are Aberdeenshire Council’s two H&S Workplace Assessors Jackie Spence (left) and Maggie Kidd.

duties we expect the pupil will be undertaking, along with what they are prohibited from doing, their days and times of work, and what they should wear, and a Risk Assessment (RA), listing the control measures which need to be in place in order to ensure the pupil does not come to any harm.

During our visits, we discuss the JD and RA with the employer, and they have the opportunity to make changes. We also check that they have valid Employers Liability Insurance to cover the pupil whilst on placement, and carry out visual inspections of the location where the pupil will be based.

The employer is left with a pack of information, which includes a copy of the JD and RA, along with further information on the provision of placements.

Once our visit is complete we update the information held on file about the employer on our database, and return our files to the Work Placement Unit who forward the relevant information to the schools concerned.”

Produced by Aberdeenshire Council GDT 22798 September 2014

Work Placement Unit Aberdeenshire Council Woodhill House, Westburn Road Aberdeen AB16 5GB 01224 664632 / 664871 workplacementunit@aberdeenshire.gov.uk

Work Placement Officer Fraser Mitchell 01224 664516 fraser.mitchell@aberdeenshire.gov.uk

Business Engagement Christine McLennan (Enterprise in Education Development Officer) 07876 476868 christine.mclennan@aberdeenshire.gov.uk

Curriculum for Excellence Alison Robertson (Curriculum for Excellence Officer – Secondary) 07786 661186 alison.robertson@aberdeenshire.gov.uk

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