Hello all, this is an update on the Skills for Life, Learning and Work in Midlothian’s Primary’s project. Having completed much of the research already, we have had some brilliant feedback from schools and businesses, we are looking forward to meeting more over the next few weeks.
Feedback and meetings
The feedback we have received so far has been overwhelmingly positive. Schools have identified the area of skills for life, learning and work as a key target area for improvement. Once we have collated more feedback from schools we will be able to find exactly what improvements we are going to strive to support.
Some great support already exists nationally and getting the DYW regional group and Skills Development Scotland on board with the project has been very promising as these groups provide some of the best tools and support for schools. They are really keen on working more with primary schools in Midlothian and are making some of their tools like ‘Marketplace’ and ‘My World of Work’ (which includes a skills builder, animal me and my interests) more accessible for Primaries. We will give a demonstration on how to use these when we meet later in the project.
We have also received some terrific feedback from local businesses about how they work with primary schools in the region and what they think would improve the process of employer and primary school engagement. This has included facilitating better and smoother links between organisations and primary schools, which is something we are working on creating an interactive map to support.
Parents
We are trying to involve parents by giving them as much information as possible about the developments of the teaching of skills for life, learning and work. So far we have managed to reach out to more than half of the parent councils in Midlothian and seen lots of enthusiastic replies about the project. We will endeavour to reach out more and find out from parents what improvements they would like to see in the teaching of skills for life, learning and work going forwards.
Event
To bring all of this research together we will be meeting on Tuesday 15th November at the National Mining Museum from 4.15-5.00pm. We will be running through the opportunities pack that we are working on to send out to schools to help facilitate the teaching of skills for life, learning and work, particularly through experiences with local organisations. This event will also be attended by members of the local authority, Skills Development Scotland and the DYW regional group and refreshments will be provided.
If you have any feedback, or something you would like us to address please don’t hesitate to comment or email me on m.mcdonald@mgfl.net
Thanks,
Matthew McDonald
