Aberdeen City Council has been awarded a prestigious accreditation for supporting young people to gain employment.
The Council’s Activity Agreements programme is the first public sector initiative to receive accreditation at Silver Level from Developing Young Workforce North East (DYWNES).
The programme offers 16-19 year-olds in the North-east dedicated support to increase their confidence, motivation and help them become ready for formal learning, employment or training.
In just four years, more than 450 young people have participated in the programme in Aberdeen and statistics for 2015/2016 show 77% of participants went on to enhanced learning, training or work opportunities compared with the national average of 74%.
Aberdeen City Council’s Convener of Education and Children’s Services Committee Councillor Angela Taylor said: “It is a tremendous achievement for all partners taking part in the Activity Agreements programme to be recognised through the Developing the Young Workforce accreditation framework. It reflects the fantastic contribution of partners to the programme.
“Working together enables activities to be arranged based on young people’s interests and opens up choice for participants who sign up for an Activity Agreement.”
James Bream, Director of Developing Young Workers North East Scotland said: “We are delighted to have accredited Aberdeen City Council’s Activity Agreements, a programme which has delivered more than 450 young people and achieved outcomes above national levels.
“At DYW we aim to bring together young people and employers and the Activity Agreements programme is helping young people into the world of work and Aberdeen City Council has rightly been recognised for its achievements.”
Local Activity Agreements are delivered across the city both by the Council via internal services including Aberdeen City Libraries, Adventure Aberdeen and Creative Learning teams as well as external partners such as Hayfield Riding Centre, Musicrange, SHMU and Transition Extreme.
The DYW Quality Accreditation is awarded to partnerships that encourage or improve the employment and training opportunities of young people aged between three and 24-years-old, which meet a core set of requirements to support the development of excellence in the North-east of Scotland.
The accreditation is awarded at three levels (bronze, silver and gold) and is dependent on the impact and outcome of the programme on young people and the number of participants. This process aims to provide an assurance to users that each programme meets the DYW objectives while raising the profile of organisations which promote positive links to the world of work.
For more information on Activity Agreements, please visit: http://www.aberdeenguarantees.com/training/activity-agreements
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https://twitter.com/AbGuarantees
For more information on Developing the Young Workforce North East, please visit:
http://www.dyw.org.uk
The Activity Agreements partnership is supported by the Scottish Government as part of its Youth Employment Strategy.