Our dedicated Volunteer Engagement Manager for Perth and Kinross works with each young person for an average of 20 weeks; mentoring support can continue for up to one year. During this time, the Volunteer Engagement Manager supports young people in defining and meeting personal goals and to have belief in their abilities – raising their aspirations and expectations. Our approach to supporting young people is to nurture, develop, embrace, and celebrate their aspirations and to help identify a range of opportunities that will help meet their aspirations, whether its progressing into training, employment, further education, or entrepreneurship.

Whilst our proposal is not specifically targeting employability themes, it does provide young people with the tools to progress through the employability pipeline and access opportunities including Kickstart; whereby our staff will link in with local Youth Employability Coaches, and employers.

Although our model is designed to be adaptable and flexible to individual needs, there are some foundational elements, which support and link back to the Young Person’s Guarantee opportunities (employment, training, volunteering, education):

• One to one assessment*: listening and discussing with each young person their needs and aspirations for the future
• Nurturing each young person throughout the programme experience and understanding, at an individual level, the motivations for joining and staying with the programme
• Design of a personal development plan so that each young person understands the skills and qualities they already possess and how they are going to develop new ones
• Matching to the right volunteering opportunity with one of our local charity partners, providing the right environment for each young person to engage with and thrive within
• Matching each young person, where appropriate, to an experienced local mentor to support them through their experience; before, during and after their placement (up to a year)
• Maintaining proactive links with local agencies that provide specialist and additional support to provide forward services in support of young people including training providers and colleges

*This, and all our engagement, is carried out in person as much as possible. However, we are now well adapted to delivering virtually should restrictions call for this again.

Built into the programme, and underlying all our work, are the following stages in helping young people move onto a positive destination; with Youth Engagement Managers, Mentors and Charity Partners all playing an important role in providing the following:

In recognition that the barriers faced by the young people are complex, this is an important area where support is given. This includes:

• Confidence/motivation building
• Financial advice and support
• Improving health and wellbeing
• Vocational support

This takes place in one-to-one sessions with a mentor or the Volunteer Engagement Manager and includes:

• Support with CVs
• Supported job search
• Job application support
• Interview techniques
• Support to ensure they receive recognition for their volunteering – setting up and managing a Saltire Awards account

We recognise that the aim for each young person is to become financially independent by finding and maintaining paid employment, which is a key ambition of the Young Person’s Guarantee. This may take longer for some than others and training, education or further volunteering is seen as a positive step in the right direction. We want to help people become more ready for the labour market by undertaking many activities, including:

• Supported volunteer placements with a local charity partner
• Advice/signposting on starting their own business
• Help with locating suitable paid work

Mentoring is a key part of our service, with one-to-one regular mentoring helping young people to maximise what they are learning on their placement, consolidate their communication skills and learn how to use their skills to move their life on. Mentors provide support with overcoming barriers, building CVs, practising interview techniques, applying for jobs and more generally supporting young people with their goals – providing a sounding board for anything they need to discuss, listening, and providing guidance where appropriate.

Our support for mentors uses different platforms; as well as group and one-to-one meetings we utilise digital formats, phone calls, email, Linked-In and Facebook.