Tag Archives: east lothian

Paddle Boarding Trip

Today’s post focuses on Matthew, one of the young people we work with at East Lothian Works. He has recently completed his Activity Agreement with the Transitions Team, and has since successfully moved on to a Positive Destination.

Matthew has engaged in several activities and courses, and as a result he has learnt many valuable skills, such as good time keeping, reliability, team working, and confidence. The final activity Matthew participated in with his Employment Support Worker Steve Nelson, was to spend an afternoon learning to Stand Up Paddle, which involved reliability, confidence, trust, and listening to and following instructions. But it also involved a great deal of fun!

We wish Matthew all the best for the future as he moves on to a college course (Professional Cookery). Watch this space for the next celebrity chef!

Keep up to date with East Lothian Works:
Twitter – twitter.com/EL_Works
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Staff Spotlight: an interview with Anne Mercer and Liliana

For this week’s Staff Spotlight, I sat down with Anne Mercer, a Volunteer Tutor with East Lothian’s Adult Literacy team, as well as ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages). I also met with Liliana, a learner who is working with Anne to improve her English. The Staff Spotlight series aims to promote the hard work that the Adult Services team in East Lothian Works do, and to show the impact they have on the community.

Continue reading Staff Spotlight: an interview with Anne Mercer and Liliana →

A Summery Summary

Love it or hate it, the summer is beginning to come to an end, and before you know it, school will be back in session, and some people will be going back to work. Therefore it seemed like a good time to look back and reflect on the summer that East Lothian Works has had – we certainly have been keeping busy!

Our team have been hard at work, planning courses and frameworks to be delivered to students all the way in 2020. It seems far away, but it’s important to be ready in plenty of time, as it will be Christmas before you know it! The team have been working on collaborating with Edinburgh College to ensure that secondary school students in East Lothian get the opportunity to take part in a wide range of courses as part of the School-College Partnership programme.

The Pre-Vocational team have been doing similar; working together to ensure a fantastic range of courses are available next year. East Lothian Works has also been working on Foundation Apprenticeships, working on our current offer and what we can do to always be improving. The team have also been focusing on our young people doing Activity Agreements, ensuring they are given the best opportunities we can provide.

Even at this early stage, we are already thinking about Jobs Kingdom Live 2020. It feels like the event only happened yesterday! We are incredibly excited to be working with our partners again to create another fantastic experience next year.

The ‘Services for Adults’ team have also been hard at work, focusing on assisting adults with their employability skills by providing bespoke guidance and training. They have been continuing to provide fantastic support for those who need it.

Overall, it has been a busy, and yet productive summer at East Lothian Works, and we are excited about implementing all our plans both in this academic year, and in 2020-2021.

Keep up to date with East Lothian Works:

Twitter – twitter.com/EL_Works
Facebook – facebook.com/EastLothianWorks

Tantallon Castle Visit

A group of East Lothian Works’ young people took a trip to Tantallon Castle the other day, giving them the opportunity to visit one of East Lothian’s most iconic landmarks. The trip took place to allow these individuals to expand their knowledge of the local wildlife and local history. The students had a fantastic time on the visit, finding out new information that they didn’t know before. This trip was planned as part of East Lothian Works’ Activity Agreements programme, which aids young people in learning new skills and gaining new experiences.

The young people admiring the view from Tantallon Castle.
The young people admiring the view from Tantallon Castle.

If you’d like to find out more about other activities these young people have experienced, have a read of our photography exhibition post here.

Keep up to date with East Lothian Works:
Twitter – twitter.com/EL_Works
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Jobs Kingdom Live

On Wednesday the 29th and Thursday the 30th of May, Queen Margaret University was host to a first-of-its-kind event. Run in collaboration between East Lothian Council, the Developing the Young Workforce Regional Group, Queen Margaret University, Napier University, and Edinburgh College, with sponsorship from Santander, Morrison Construction, and Canon, ‘Jobs Kingdom Live’ took East Lothian by storm!

Students hard at work in the archaeology sandpit.
Students hard at work in the archaeology sandpit.

The event known as Jobs Kingdom Live gave all P5 pupils in East Lothian the opportunity to try out a multitude of different jobs. The aim was to show young people the types of careers that are available to them, in order to have children thinking about their career paths earlier in life. Students were encouraged to participate in activities related to jobs they may have never heard of before, or may not have considered, in order to display the wide multitude of opportunities available on the job market.

Students with their completed lava lamps.

Jobs available on the day included:

  • Banking
  • Construction
  • Beauty Therapy
  • Archaeology
  • Engineering
  • Science
  • Emergency Services
The next generation of fire fighters!

The event has been seen to be a huge success, with overwhelmingly positive feedback from the 1,300 pupils that attended, as well as from the exhibitors themselves. Jobs Kingdom Live is looking to be an event that will be remembered for a long time to come, and we can’t wait to start planning for next year!

Keep up to date with East Lothian Works:
Twitter – twitter.com/EL_Works
Facebook – facebook.com/EastLothianWorks