New Careers Drive Unites Borders Region

The Borders is leading the way in developing opportunities for employment, according to a leading national figure, and creating the potential for more and better employees.

James Russell, Co-chair of the Scottish Careers Collaborative, was one of the guest speakers at the first ‘Know Your Network’ event organised by the Local Employability Partnership, at Lilliardsedge, and he followed Claire Renton, the Scottish Government’s Deputy Director of Employability in praising the launch of the Borders Careers Collaborative.

The holiday park near Ancrum has become known for its Edgefest music festival and bringing leading pop acts to the Borders, but this month it lit up the stage for more than 200 people representing the region’s secondary schools, Borders College, Scottish Borders Council, businesses and a wide variety of third sector organisation.

The event had five key objectives:

Asked how important this was to businesses and improving the quality and quantity of employees, Russell said: “This is hugely beneficial to businesses across the Borders.

“The National Careers Collaborative was established to facilitate change across the skills and careers and employability ecosystem, but you can’t do everything nationally.

“There’s some things that we can facilitate around bringing governments and national organisations together to invest resources, time and money, to provide solutions, but actually the power comes from local collaboratives like this.

“I’ve enjoyed being part of this event, listening to the discussions and seeing the interaction, and particularly for practitioners, this kind of event is the first step, I guess, around enhancing what exists in the Borders, raising awareness of who and what is out where, and shaping solutions that best suit this area and the employers based here.

“Some of the challenges are the thing wherever you go in Scotland, or even the UK, with economic activity a significant challenge and how we support people back into the labour market, while we all have challenges in school around non-attendance. What we have learned about that is that it’s not all about qualifications and that the more experiences young people have with employers, the better outcomes you have for both the young person and the business.

“But then there are unique issues in the Borders around rural challenges, the types of businesses that are located here, where their markets are, and how they service those markets that only people and organisation here can fully understand.

“The opportunities that exist in a town or city don’t always exist in parts of the Borders, and how we blend digital and face-to-face services is crucial here. And a key route to understanding what is available and what isn’t in the Borders, what’s needed and what isn’t, is this kind of collaborative.

“What needs to happen off the back of it is all sizes of businesses now engaging with the collaborative and people taking decisions about how to make things better in the Scottish Borders.”

The Scottish Borders Chamber of Commerce is a partner in the Collaborative and Roz Haughey, SBCC Engagement Manager, welcomed its development.

“The ‘Know Your Network’ event has received a lot of very positive feedback, and it was a very positive, inspirational event to be a part of.

“It was good to hear the national perspectives from James at the Scottish Collaborative and Claire at the Scottish Government, but also to hear from Ally Scott at Scottish Borders Council on how he sees the local collaborative being driven.

“It is vital for businesses large and small across the Borders that we play a role in helping to shape and support employability skills, and this collaborative will help to bring more people and organisation to the table to continue our drive for a more joined-up approach.”