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

We have now been in place for just over a year and would like to welcome you to an event to review the work we have done over the last year, thank a number of organisations that we have worked with and share our plans for the coming months.

The event will be held at the Abercorn Conference Centre in the Paisley Campus of West College Scotland on the 15th June between 4pm - 5.30pm. If you would like to register to attend then please email info@dywwest.co.uk

We look forward to seeing you there!

Calling Young People to join a National Youth Panel!

Are you aged 16-25 and living in the UK?

Do you want to represent the voice of young people on the challenges of moving from school to work?

Are you interested in making a difference to young people’s education?

If yes, help to shape a School-to-Work (S2W) programme for schools across the UK!

Tell me more!

Research based on the views of 1,500 16-21 year-olds said that many young people do not feel they have the right skills, training and experiences to get the jobs they want.  To help change this, organisations want to introduce a School-to-Work (S2W) programme in schools across the UK to ensure young people are fully equipped with the information and skills they need to successfully move from school into work.

Young people need to be at the heart of shaping the S2W programme and so a National Youth Panel is being set-up supported by the BBC, Chartered Management Institute, Developing the Young Workforce North East Scotland, EY Foundation, Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations to ensure that the voice of young people is heard on S2W issues.  

What will I be doing?

As a member of the National Youth Panel your commitment will require approximately 8-10 hours/month and will involve:

• Monthly calls with the other National Youth Panel members and meetings in person at least once a year
• Working with representatives from the business, education and social sectors to provide a youth perspective on S2W syllabus proposals
• Providing reaction to news items related to S2W issues
• Representing the National Youth Panel at external events.

The deadline to apply is 2 June 2017.

For further information and details on how to apply to become a member, please find further information attached below.

DYW West are inviting local companies in the West Region (Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde and West Dunbartonshire) to take part in the Scottish Apprenticeship Challenge which recognises the skills and creativity of apprentices and allows them to showcase their contribution to the local community.

The challenge is open to companies with staff currently following an Apprenticeship Framework. The company/apprentice(s) should identify a project which benefits the local community and the awards are open to individual apprentices or teams of apprentices (up to 8 apprentices in a team), depending upon the project being undertaken. We recommend that a maximum of 40 hours is spent on this project (including planning). 

Registration must be received by the 30^th of June 2017 and the challenge should be completed and report submitted by the 29^th of September 2017.

All teams will be invited to a Presentation Ceremony in October 2017 where they will present on their project to a panel of judges and wider audience. All apprentices will receive a certificate to acknowledge their achievement. 

Further information on the challenge and registration documentation is included below.