OUR APPROACH
WorkingRite is a successful and sustainable solution to youth unemployment. It is borne from old-fashioned values, whereby young people experience a working rite of passage to help take them from adolescence to adulthood. We believe that every young person deserves the opportunity to prove themselves in the workplace, regardless of their age, inexperience, personal circumstance or qualifications. For that reason, we have a truly holistic and individually tailored approach for each young person that engages on the programme.
The 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. It is the practical pathway to a job or apprenticeship.
Our vision is to focus on those young people who are considered the hardest to reach and most unprepared for the workplace. The Covid crisis only heightened these young peoples’ barriers to employment and we have seen a sharp increase in the number of young people with poor mental health / wellbeing.
Across Scotland, our aim is to address community¬based challenges – such as deprivation, generational poverty, crime, homelessness and drug/alcohol addiction through life skills and employability training for young people aged 15¬-24. We deliver in partnership with other community-rooted youth and regeneration organisations across Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Argyll & Bute and East Ayrshire.
The programme teaches hard and soft skills and the individual development support needed to help them secure and keep a job as they transition from adolescence into adulthood. 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’ work with their work placement provider for up to six months during which they are guided by an older mentor in the workplace and supported by our Project Co-ordinator. When eligible, they also receive a weekly training allowance and we cover their travel expenses.
Whilst on placement, they have the opportunity to take part in additional training to boost their skills or qualifications further. For instance, our Project Co-ordinators can help young people to overcome emotional or motivational difficulties through GOALS training, or support them through the SQA Certificate of Work Readiness.
Providing our young people with a weekly training allowance is important to WorkingRite. Many training providers do not do this or do not give as much. Thanks to our many funders and our work placement providers, WorkingRite trainees are given *£110 per week. This shows that their efforts are appreciated and that everyone’s committed to helping them go forward in life.
*The training allowance may not apply for all over 19 as it can affect other benefit payments.