Become an employer partner
Thank you for your interest in becoming an employer partner. You could make a real difference to the lives of young people across Scotland.
Many employers have successfully recruited from our Employability Programmes.
Offering a work trial with Action for Children is simple and you will receive ongoing support from our team of dedicated staff to ensure a successful outcome for all.
You can support us in three ways:
Support will also be provided to identify any sources of subsidy funding available for employers.
A supporter or partner can offer help by contacting Liz Beith.
We can then assess what is offered with regards to the needs of the groups. All offers of help are gratefully received and appreciated.
DV McColl has supported our work at Employability Services and the young people we support for a number of years. They have offered a number of work trials to young people who have completed our programmes in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dunbartonshire.
Each young person has been given the opportunity to show how much they have learned on the course and whether they have the aptitude to work in the construction industry. Many of our trainees have gone on to successfully gain employment with the company.
One particular success story has been Luke. A graduate of our Youthbuild programme, he joined DV McColl on a work taster and has gone from strength to strength now he has been taken on as an employee.
In fact he has done so well he was nominated for the Young Builder of the Year Awards 2016 and travelled down to the Houses of Parliament in London where he was presented with a Commendation award. A credit to his hard work and the support that he has received from DV McColl.
Since 2010, Interserve has worked closely with us in Glasgow and Edinburgh and offered over 40 opportunities to young people to date.
As a large contractor they offer the prospect of an excellent career within the scaffolding industry and are known for their investment in training for staff.
In the last few years they have offered 40 of our young people work tasters and have employed 29 of them.
McTaggart Construction have been a great supporter of Action for Children for over 7 years. They have given our young people the chance to work directly for a large contractor on a number of sites throughout the Central Belt. They have been involved in offering not only work tasters leading to employment but also providing site visits and employability skills support.
Leading by example, McTaggart Construction actively encourage their sub-contractors to support our young people and over the last few years they and their sub-contractors have employed candidates in trades such as bricklaying, joinery, scaffolding and ground working.
Sometimes larger companies find it difficult to directly offer work tasters. Morrison Construction has been one such company.
As a large design and build contractor they don't directly employ many trades people, they sub contract a lot of the construction trades tasks. However their support and access to their supply chain has been invaluable.
Many main contractors, have in recent years, implemented the post of Community Benefit Officer who is then responsible for the execution of the policy. Morrison's have offered their support by encouraging their supply chain of sub-contractors, as part of their contract with the company, to offer work tasters.
In this way they, as a construction trainer, can access a larger number of trades and offer a diverse range of work to our young people.
Scott-Moncrieff has been involved in supporting Action for Children since the beginning of 2017, through providing work placements to you people within our tax team. After offering a first placement in February, we were delighted to work with the charity again in July and August, providing a second, eight week, placement.
We find it very humbling and rewarding watching the young people not only enhance their skill set while they are with us, but also grow in confidence. Often, one of the most difficult challenges when starting your career is knowing how to conduct yourself and get to know others in the working environment. We hope that, through our placements, the individuals we have supported feel more at ease and prepared for their journey into the working world.
The support Action for Children offers is excellent. It is clear that they are passionate about helping young people strive in the working environment and we hope to continue working with them in the future to help them do this.
There are a number of ways in which a supporter or partner can be involved in the training element of our programmes.
The involvement can be short or long term, such as offering a site visit to give the trainees an idea of the realities of a building site or long term such as mentoring a young person once they have moved on into employment.
Short term involvement
Short term involvement can include participating in:
employability sessions including CV workshops, Employers Expectations, etc
mock interviews - these are invaluable to our trainees as they give them the experience of being interviewed by real employers but in a more controlled setting
practical sessions - “donate a tradesman” for the day to show the young people the various aspects of the trade or talks about the industry, their role and how they started their career within construction
site visits - host a visit for our group of young people onto a live site to show them how the site works and the various roles within the industry
Long term involvement
Long term involvement can include participating in:
mentoring
providing work trials
offering employment
Practical assistance
There are many organisations, especially the larger ones, who find it difficult to support our courses by offering work tasters, but they can offer more practical assistance.
This can be in the form of site visits or coming to meet the young people on the course and offer their experience and tell them of the reality of working in the construction industry.
As a charity, we often rely on the generosity of our partners and employers to donate materials and equipment for our projects and young people.
Our Challenge programme for example, relies on donations of materials to complete community projects.
We have also received donations of kitchen units, radiators, etc to allow us to offer some practical sessions to young people as part of our programmes.
Often young people require tool kits when they move onto employment with companies, so any donations of tools or work wear is also appreciated.
Here are some examples of materials and donations we have received from our current supporters:
Plant - use of mini diggers and drivers, chippers and skips.
Hand tools - donations of spades, rakes, trowels, spirit levels and wheelbarrows.
Landscaping - donations of monoblock, slabs and type 1 & 2, cement mixers.
Decorating - paint, groundsheets, paint utensils and brushes.