In Your Shoes - Caryn Gibson

We Woke up in a winter wonderland

A snowy Monday morning kicks off with a marketing meeting to look at building a campaign that will help employers better understand the benefits that having an apprentice can bring to their business.

At Dundee and Angus College our goal is to connect in with industry and work closely with them to train young people ’on the job’ and make sure that they gain skills and qualifications that can help shape their future careers.

We have a fab marketing team who are working away on engaging campaigns to help inspire businesses to explore the possibility of employing an apprentice and we look forward to sharing it with you. Right now, businesses can also access up to £5k grant funding to help towards the salary costs of a young person so there really has never been a better time to bring new talent in to your business. Why not check out more information on our website. 

In the afternoon we had a team meeting to welcome a new member to the team. Anna Davies has joined us and will be our new Gardyne Theatre Manager and we can’t wait to see what plans she has in store for us. The creative industry has taken a massive hit and we are desperate to see the bright lights at our theatre switched back on…. Keep your eyes peeled for an exciting line up!

Partnership approach

Tuesday kicked off with a catch up with Ann Kerr from the Business Gateway Team.  Working together with partners has never been more important and we are trying hard to pull our resources together to make sure that the business community can access the best support.  As an HR Business Adviser, Ann helps business better understand the recruitment process and the college can then support by taking that person through any training they may need.  If you have met Ann, you will know that the meeting was good fun and full of lots of ideas to better work together.

I spent the afternoon meeting with the lovely team at Montrose Golf Club.  As you can imagine the club have had to work hard to deliver their business differently this year with not having their usual international customers joining them.  The team are still as ambitious as ever and we had a great meeting about the support they can access through the Flexible Workforce Development Fund.  If you haven’t heard already, the fund has been expanded this year and SME’s can now access up to £5k worth of training to help their business build back from Covid.  The pot is limited but there are still some spaces so if you are interested in accessing training, check out our website for more information. 

Supporting the next generation

Today I had the pleasure of meeting the Skills Development Scotland team that work within schools across Dundee and Angus helping young people make career decisions as they look to leave school. My colleague Angela and I join them at their weekly team meeting to talk about our different apprenticeship programmes and update them on our newest programme, the Pathways Apprenticeship.

Scottish Government have released some funding to help us engage 16 to 18 year olds who have recently left school to help prepare them for the world of work and so we are offering Pathways Apprenticeship programmes in Care, Engineering, Bricklaying and Roofing. These are short courses that range from between 4 to 6 months long and are a fantastic opportunity for young people to get exposure to what a career in that field would look like. What’s even better is if they have 100% attendance they will also get £100 weekly training allowance so not only are they learning new skills they are also making some money and we will work with them to try and find employment opportunities as they finish their course.

If you know any young people who could benefit from this then let them know there is still time to apply here.

Coffee and Contracts

Lots of coffee required today as I spend the day reading through contracts and trying to navigate my way around the Flexible Workforce Development Fund terms and conditions. I am most definitely a blue sky thinker and I love making a plan of action and coming up with new solutions to problems but I have to admit reading heavy, detailed contracts to gather the information I need is definitely not my idea of fun BUT it’s necessary so the coffee will help!

This is a new project that I have taken on within my role and this one really excites me as it’s a fantastic way for us to support businesses. When delivering a project I like a 'work smart not hard' approach and so a streamlined process that is easy for the staff to navigate and also delivers a really quality and enjoyable experience for our customers is key.

It's also really important to me that this service is shaped our customers needs and so if you want to share any thoughts on where you feel there is more training or upskilling required for businesses then please drop me a line - I would love to hear your thoughts.

Friday Feeling

What a surprise to find out Mid Term holidays are a thing. A new one for me in my working career but a lovely surprise to have an unexpected long weekend.

I kicked off my day with a slippery walk down by the beach with my sidekick, my lovely wee dog Kia – it was absolutely fascinating to see thick snow so close to the sea and it set my day up nicely.

I then did a zoom kettlebell class followed by a lazy afternoon on the sofa binge watching ‘It’s a Sin’. Highly recommend you watch this – a real eye opener but be warned, you will need tissues.

My Friday night finished off with a delivery from my favourite local restaurant; Wee Cook in Carnoustie. If you haven’t yet tried their pies then you simply haven’t lived – they are to die for.

All in all another fab week that flashed by and it's been so lovely to get to know more of my new colleagues and partners.