Employability is at the heart of an economically successful and vibrant society. By providing development opportunities for young people, ScottishPower is supporting the economic regeneration of its local communities.

ScottishPower Learning was established in 1996, and is focused on improving the employability of young people within our local communities. Its emphasis is on providing training and development opportunities of a broad nature including key skills that are essential for employment in today’s job market. 

Over 10 years, ScottishPower Learning has helped over 100,000 people and directly trained over 12,000 young people.
 
ScottishPower Learning’s work can be split into 3 categories;
a) School-based programmes designed to support the school to work transition
b) Community-based programmes designed to help unemployed young people build their skills in preparation for work
c) Work-based programmes designed to provide young people with work experience and vocational training

The Young Managers programme provides a series of workshops run in the workplace which explore key skills such as communication, team working and problem solving.  The programme helps build confidence and self-esteem, develops employability and improves the pupils’ aspirations. By delivering the workshops in the workplace, the pupils learn more about the world of work and better understand employers expectations.  To date over 350 pupils have participated in this programme.
 
The School to Work programme uses business assessment centre methodologies to assess and develop pupils' employability skills from a business perspective as they prepare to make the transition from school to work.  The programme assesses pupils' core employability skills, provides realistic feedback to pupils on their current skill levels and helps produce an individually tailored training plan.  The School to Work Programmes has reached 1,700 pupils.

The Looking Forward to Work programme supplements the resources provided by Careers Companies by giving the pupils an overview of current recruitment and selection processes from a business perspective. To date the Looking Forward to Work programme has been delivered to around 300 pupils.

Our partnership with the Prince’s Trust to deliver the Prince’s Trust Team programme is ScottishPower Learning’s main community-based programme. This 12 week programme brings together young adults aged 16-25, of different abilities and backgrounds to help boost their confidence, motivation and skills through teamwork in the community. During 2005-06, we delivered 18 Team Programmes involving 228 young people. To date we have created Prince’s Trust teams involving over 2,400 young people. The quality of our partnership was recognised in both Merseyside and Scotland in 2005 through the Prince’s Trust awards.

Community Champions is a community awards and recognition programme covering our operating areas in Merseyside and North Wales. The awards recognise teams who have improved their local environment, local schools, young people (aged 18 or under), a Sporting Champion or a  Community Champion in the local community who has made a real difference. These are local heroes and heroines who through outstanding volunteering efforts, such as fund-raising, achieving sporting success, helping a neighbour, youth centre or the local environment, are working to improve our communities.

Project Scotland was created to connect young Scots with full time volunteering opportunities. These placements provide practical experience and help develop confidence and skills.  Every volunteer has a line manager during their placements and has access to a mentor who can provide guidance and support. ScottishPower is a founding champion and corporate sponsor of Project Scotland with financial support committed until 2007-08. Find out more about Project Scotland here.

Our key activity in this area is the Skillseeker programme. Starting in 1996, this was ScottishPower Learning’s first initiative.  Over the last 10 years, it has been developed, refined and reviewed to ensure it continues to be relevant and add value to all stakeholders. This programme achieved Business in the Community’s Example of Excellence in both 2002 and 2005 and is ScottishPower Learning’s flagship programme. The programme combines vocational learning, soft skills development, confidence building and job search advice to help young school leavers make the transition from school or unemployment into work.

The Skillseeker programme has had a high success rate with over 75% of participants moving into sustainable employment or further education. To date nearly 1,200 school leavers have benefited from the Skillseeker Programme. If you are a school leaver and would like to find out more about our Skillseeker Programme, please visit www.ourdoorisalwaysopen.com 

We believe that enabling our employees to contribute to community causes has a powerful and positive impact on their levels of job satisfaction and performance. By using ScottishPower Learning’s programmes to develop leadership and other people skills, our community programmes benefit both the community and our businesses and helps ensure their sustainability.

Hundreds of staff participate in community development programmes through ScottishPower Learning. These range from frontline staff becoming mentors to young unemployed school leavers on our Skillseeker Programme, to secondments as a Prince’s Trust Team Leader, to senior managers joining the boards of charitable organisations.

Here’s what some of them have to say:

 “I realised that, just like youngsters, people in work sometimes need someone to advise and help them build their confidence.  The experience has helped me develop my communication and coaching skills.”

Derek Brown (Procurement) - School to Work – Observer

"It gave me a chance to practice being a mentor in challenging situations. This will stay with me throughout my life as a manager"

Alex Hunter (Learning & Development) - Young Managers Programme Mentor

“Participating in the programme has provided a development opportunity that would be hard to get elsewhere.  For me, it is a chance to work and reflect on softer people skills in a real but ‘safe‘ environment - a classroom training course could not provide this.”

Morag Buxel (Reward) - School to Work Programme – Observer

“I think this is a very valuable experience for ScottishPower staff to come out of the business and broaden our horizons and develop new skills whilst working in an environment we usually wouldn’t be working in.”

Helen Boos (Retail) - Prince’s Trust Team Leader