We will continue to provide opportunities for young people to access employment resulting in sustained high participation rates in Modern Apprenticeships, Foundation Apprenticeships and Employability Programmes.
In 2022, there were 45 Modern Apprentices (MA) employed across the council, including 22 new starts – with five people in business administration, five in early learning and childcare, seven in social care and five in crafts-related fields. Ten MAs went on to secure established posts within the council and the rest remain in their MA post.
The council continues its work in partnership with Enable Works (through the Developing the Young Workforce and Moving On Transitions Project) to deliver training for managers and staff designed to increase awareness and understanding of disabilities and diversity in the context of employment. A training programme was established to deliver on that, which ran in February and March 2022. Courses included ‘Supporting and Developing Employees’, ‘Rethinking Recruitment’, ‘Disability Awareness’, ‘Learning Disability and Autism Awareness’ and ‘Supporting Successful Work Experiences’.
The council also continues to work with SUSE (Scottish Union of Supported Employment) and Apt, which is a Public Social Partnership (PSP) funded by the Scottish Government who have a mission to reduce the Disability Employment Gap and we have recently undergone an Employer Assessment. We now have an action plan to help us build our capacity to attract, recruit and retain disabled people and those with long-term health conditions.
In addition, a member of the council’s HR Team is currently undertaking National Institute of Disability Management and Research (NIDMAR) training (a nine-month programme fully funded by the Scottish Government for Apt PSP partners). This training is for those supporting the recruitment and on-the job support to employees who have a health condition or disability to gain and retain their employment.
Project Search is currently not running locally due to the lack of applications from young people who wanted to transition onto the programme at this time. There are a number of reasons for this – ongoing Covid-19 anxieties and young people opting to stay on at school, other part-time local employability programmes being available, young peoples’ lack of readiness and understanding of the world of work, lack of independent travel skills and the programme being primarily based in Lerwick, etc. The council continues to offer an alternative employability programme through the Youth and Employability Team but the intention is to look again at the Project Search option/model in the future if sufficient participant demand is realised.