We are here to support our young people – however we do not have a 24 hour helpline service. If you need help, or someone to talk to right now, please visit our support line contacts
What we do?
Across Scotland, our local Project Co-ordinators individually match a young person to a small business in their local community, where they learn valuable skills ‘on-the-job’, where it counts. Our ‘trainees’ are with their work placement provider for up to six months during which they are guided by an older mentor in the business and supported by our Project Co-ordinator. If they are eligible, they also receive a weekly training allowance and we cover their travel expenses.
Our main programme bridges the gap between school and work. It gives young people essential work experience, provides good role models, builds their confidence and offers them a quality vocational alternative to academic learning. For a bit more information check the pages for young people, parents and work placement providers.
For some young people the journey starts before they have left school, through our Rite to Work programme, which partners with schools to support primarily 15 year olds in their 4th year at school. This gives young people, who aren’t able to engage academically, the opportunity to explore what they want to do when they leave and prepare for moving onto the main work placement programme, or return to school or move on to further education with a new focus.
Having identified that there is a gap for many once they have completed a work placement, our On-Your-Side Mentoring programme will provide on-going support for our young people as they negotiate their route towards a thriving adulthood. This is in a pilot phase at the moment and will be rolled out across the project areas over the next three years.
Watch the videos below to hear about how the WorkingRite programme has worked for young people and businesses – or read the real stories about how it has changed the lives of young people: