On the 25^th & 26^th of November, STEM West will be held at West College Scotland Clydebank Campus for its 3^rd year. We’d like to invite employers from STEM related industries to inspire the future workforce in a fun and interactive way.

In previous years, we’ve had representatives from companies like Rolls-Royce, Arnold Clark and the NHS to name a few. Each employer brings along something interactive and engaging that offers an insight to the work they do. For example, last year Ferguson Marine brought a Virtual Reality welder, where pupils would strap on a VR headset and find out what it is Ferguson Marine do on a daily basis.

With over 500 pupils attending over 2 days, this could be a great opportunity for you to represent your organisation/industry in a fun and interactive way and introduce young people to the world of STEM.

If this sounds like something you could do, don’t hesitate to get in touch at info@dywwest.co.uk.

You can see a gallery of photos from last year’s event here.

And you can see a video of last year here.

Developing the Young Workforce West (DYW) regional group has appointed Andrew Bowman as its new Chair person.

Mr Bowman, who joined the DYW West Board of Directors in January 2019, will take up his role of Chair immediately replacing former Chair, SSE’s Head of Performance Victor Stirling.

DYW West was established in 2016 to help employers to shape their future workforce and covers Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde and West Dunbartonshire.

DYW West Programme Director, Bob Davidson said:

“I’d like to thank Victor for all of his hard work over the past three years, and we are delighted to have someone of the calibre and enthusiasm of Andrew to replace him as our new Chair.

"Andrew is well connected and works with the business base across the region, which is essential. He has a wide range of experience across various industries and sectors and has been a long-term supporter of the DYW West programme.

“We are aware of his successes within Inverclyde, and I am confident his enthusiasm and experience will help drive DYW West to provide further opportunities for our partners and employers across the West region.”

DYW West is one of twenty-one regional groups across Scotland borne out of the Wood Commission review into developing Scotland’s young workforce and is funded by the Scottish Government. The group is hosted within the Paisley Campus of West College Scotland and funded until 31 March 2021.

On accepting the role, Andrew said:

“I am delighted to be appointed Chair of this vibrant, exciting and vitally important organisation. 

“DYW West is a crucial cog in creating opportunities for both employers and young people and has delivered excellent results within youth employment.

“I’d like to thank my fellow Directors for this opportunity and look forward to working with them, Bob and his team to deliver further growth and success for the west region’s current and future young workforce.”

Having grown up in Gourock, Andrew joined Riverside Inverclyde in August 2016 and is responsible for securing new investment into the Inverclyde area and encouraging growth within existing businesses.  Andrew spent the seven previous years at Zurich Insurance where he grew to Strategic Assistant of the Zurich Municipal business based in London.

Andrew is also the Junior Vice-President of Inverclyde Chamber of Commerce and co-founder of Creative Inverclyde; a social enterprise focused on growing the creating sector. Andrew studied at GCU and lives in Greenock with his wife and two children.

Workshops aimed at helping young Renfrewshire school leavers successfully apply for work have recently taken place at West College Scotland Paisley Campus. Held over February and March, the “Hire Me” workshops were organised and delivered in partnership between Renfrewshire Council & DYW West.

The workshops comprised of separate sessions focused around application forms, CVs and interviews for approx. 50 pupils and were delivered by West College Scotland board member John Leburn; Invest In Renfrewshire Assistant Manager Michael Moran and DYW West Director, Bob Davidson. In addition, each group was taken on a tour of the college to talk to lecturers about their relevant departments and the opportunities on offer to students.

Commenting on the workshops DYW West Director Bob Davidson said “these workshops should give young people a better chance in the future to secure a job having been coached through the relevant steps in the recruitment process. Thank you to the college, Renfrewshire Council and all involved for working together to deliver this important piece of work”

The inaugural Incredible Innovations Competition started back in September 2018 and was born out of talks between DYW West, West College Scotland and Morrison Construction with the sole focus of allowing young people to come together try and help their school in a variety of different ways.

Teams coordinated market research, came up with ideas, produced prototypes, created presentations and drew up business plans to impress a panel of judges at the finals of the competition, held on the 26^th March at the West College Scotland Paisley campus.

The competition was open to young people from Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, West Dunbartonshire and Inverclyde and teams from Notre Dame High School, Williamwood High School, Mary Russell School, St. Stephens High School, St. Peter the Apostle High School, Our Lady and St. Patrick's High School and St. Columba's High School battled it out to win the lucrative prize of £1000 which would go towards making their ideas a reality and improving the unique problems each school faced.

Only one school would win the £1000 on the day, and that honour was awarded to Notre Dame High School for with their eco-friendly, reusable water bottle idea. However, there were two Runners-Up prizes worth £500 that were awarded to from St. Peter the Apostle High School and Williamwood High School with their homework planner app and multi-phone charger ideas respectively.

Morrison Construction has also committed to supplying 250 water bottles to kick-start the Mary Russell School Eco-Warrior project.

Morrison Construction, Economic Performance Manager, Jim Johnstone said: ‘‘It was fantastic to be part of the Incredible Innovations competition since its inception in August last year, travelling to schools and meeting the pupils and teachers involved.

‘‘I was delighted to present the winners cheque to the Notre Dame High School team. It is wonderful to know the prize money will be used to supply 1,300 personal water bottles to existing and new pupils, as well as staff, cutting the use of plastic at the school.

‘‘I would also like to congratulate the other finalist teams on their high-quality presentations, you made the judging panels task very difficult.’’

Commenting on the competition, DYW West Director Bob Davidson said: “Everything that the pupils have done to reach the finals will help them prepare for life after school – working as a team, conducting research, managing budgets, public speaking and much more – all skills employers want.

‘‘I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the schools, pupils and teachers that entered and congratulations to the winners, runners up and all that reached the final. Finally thank you to Morrison Construction and West College Scotland for being great partners and working together with us on the competition - the project will run again after the summer.”

DYW West are always looking for employers of all sizes and sectors to get involved by helping bring the curriculum to life and prepare young people for the world of work. Please visit www.dywwest.co.uk to get in touch.

Emily our Modern Apprentice has written a blog post: "10 Things I didn't expect (or know) before becoming a Modern Apprentice!"

Check it out here: https://madiaries143672851.wordpress.com

Does your organisation employ apprentices? (Foundation, Modern and/or Graduate). Then why not consider entering the Scottish Apprenticeship Challenge!

The company/apprentice(s) identify a project which benefits the local community and the individual apprentices or teams of apprentices (up to 8 apprentices in a team) can participate, depending upon the project being undertaken. A maximum of 40 hours should be spent on this project over a three month period.

Organisations need to register with us by 31^st May and have completed the project by the end of September (with a report). We will have a regional event in October to choose our regional winner who will go forward to the national competition. For more info read here / registration document link is here

As 2018 is the Year of Young People the younger team members of DYW West and DYW Glasgow have teamed up to tackle the objective of the Year of Young People 2018 - to provide a platform for young people to have their views about education heard and acted upon. To achieve this, we have developed a Web App that allows young people to share their thoughts on education in Scotland.

If you are 26 or under, through this platform you are invited to contribute to a bank of thoughts around education in Scotland - by completing the sentence ‘Education should be…’ by visiting www.educationshouldbe.scot

We’d like to encourage everyone to spread the word and get behind #educationshouldbe. Join the conversation on social media and find out more at @DYWWEST and @DYWGlasgow.

In partnership with DYW Glasgow, we will be running the #nowrongpath campaign this Scottish Exam Results Day (8 August) to celebrate the range and diversity of career paths that are followed after leaving school.
 
On 8 August, we’re encouraging people from a variety of sectors and professions to share a snippet of their story – what they did when they left school and where they are now. We want to convey a message to young people that there are a variety of ways to get into a variety of job roles – that there is #nowrongpath.

To get involved:

1. Write up a poster noting your name, what you done when you left school and what you are doing now
2. Take a photo of yourself or your colleagues with your/their poster
3. Post the photo on to social media on the 8th August and tag #nowrongpath, DYW West and DYW Glasgow

DYW West are seeking employers across a range of sectors to host an event for teaching staff & lecturers. These “Industry Twilight” sessions will give teachers and lecturers the opportunity to learn more about:

• Your specific industry
• Jobs / careers and routes in (school leaver, apprentice, graduate etc.)
• Qualifications required
• Skills and qualities you look for

…and ideally include a tour and meet a range of staff from young new starts to those with many years’ experience.

The information from these sessions will help teachers and lecturers bring their curriculums to life and help career related conversations with pupils and students.

If you don’t have the facilities to host / provide a tour – but would still like to get involved, we can look at using the college to host a session – so still please get in touch.

DYW West covers Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, East Ren and West Dunbartonshire – so we are ideally looking for organisations with a presence in these areas (or nearby)

The window for these sessions will be start in September and run through to early June 2018 (1 session per company)

If you would like to host a twilight session – timings approx. 4.30-5.30pm, duration 1 hour, Mon-Thu please email info@dywwest.co.uk with the following information:

• Name of your organisation
• Industry sector
• Contact, name & job title
• Address where session would be hosted
• Number of teachers / lecturers you can comfortably host
• Tour included; yes / no
• Preferred date

What is Operation Restoration?

Operation Restoration is a competition for all secondary schools in Scotland – we’re challenging students to dream up ways to breathe new life into local abandoned schools.

What do you win?

All shortlisted schools will be invited to bring ten students for a construction experience day at Queensferry crossing.

Prizes

1^st Prize: £1000 Amazon vouchers

2^nd Prize: £700 Amazon Vouchers

3^rd Prize: £500 Amazon Vouchers

For further information please visit the Go Construct website