SCC President, Tim Allan, brought the recent West Dunbartonshire Careers Fortnight (#WDInspire2021) to a close.
Mr Allan welcomed more than 40 guests to Dunbartonshire Chamber of Commerce’s Building Bridges Business Breakfast on the final day of the programme – which was put together by partnership working between West Dunbartonshire Council, DYW West, Skills Development Scotland and Dunbartonshire Chamber of Commerce.
The two weeks of activity featured a range of daily virtual events and resources including live virtual workshops, industry insight videos and recordings, Q&A sessions covering a variety of sectors and support for CV writing and interview techniques.
The support of local businesses to connect private enterprise with schools has been at the heart of the activity with “Skills Champions” contributing to the success of the fortnight to provide careers inspiration for young people in West Dunbartonshire. Aggreko, Babcock, BAM, MoD, Glenhead Engineering and European Circuits were just some of the businesses that got involved to support the programme.
Damon Scott, Chief Executive, Dunbartonshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “The Careers Fortnight is an excellent example of collaborative working and agility to respond to the challenges the pandemic has thrown up. It is important to recognise the commitment and enthusiasm of all the partners and businesses involved to make this happen under challenging circumstances.”
“We were delighted that so many businesses could join us at our Business Breakfast. Along with the other partners we hope we can continue to build the participation and reach within our wonderful business community to develop the skills of our young workforce to meet the needs of the local and Scottish economies.”
Sharon Colvan, Operations Manager at Glenhead Engineering, DCC Board member and Building Bridges “Champion”, added: “The Business Breakfast was an excellent event with lots of representation across a range of sectors! It was really good to see so many companies keen to help young people achieve a positive destination. I was also delighted to represent the Engineering sector for the focus on STEM and share some of my knowledge and experience to help some of the young people with their career choices.”
Mr Allan was evangelical in his praise for the event: “The commitment and energy in the Scottish Business Community is fantastic. There was so much positivity during the session and I was so impressed by the enthusiasm in the midst of a global crisis.”
Radio partnership supports skills
Dunbartonshire Chamber recently agreed an exciting new partnership with Dunbartonshire-based River Radio that will see the radio station promote the activities of The Chamber. The station played an important part in the skills fortnight with daily interviews taking place with Chamber Members to provide industry insights and career pathways.
Ambitious plans for building bridges programme
Dunbartonshire Chamber is keen to build on the event and partnerships in 2021 by continuing to create online resource with new interviews and videos, recruiting more Skills Champions to support schools and young people and attracting sponsorship to support the Chamber’s Building Bridges Skills Development Programme that all skill-based activity falls under.
