East Ayrshire is fourth in Scotland for positive destinations for young people
East Ayrshire has been named fourth in Scotland for positive destinations for young people following the release of national statistics by the Scottish Government for 2024/25.
96.4% is the best result for East Ayrshire to date and reflects the Council’s innovative approach to helping young people achieve their full potential.
In addition to strong curriculum development, the Council has also created a unique delivery model – which started with Skills and Learning 33 (SL33) to support young people who are not engaged with mainstream education.
SL33 was developed in response to identified need within communities and the No-one Left Behind team worked with school senior leaders, pupil support colleagues, employers and a range of Council services and local training providers, to improve essential work skills of young people still at school and unemployed young people.
This included workplace learning activity, communications skills, encouraging creativity, innovation, enterprise and working effectively as a team.
By working with local employers, the team have developed meaningful interactions with our young people through work tasters, work placements, mentoring and meet the employer sessions. They are also supporting employers to work with schools to inform the design and delivery of the careers and employability curriculum.
In June last year, Council agreed to merge the Employability Service with Education to create a new service that pools experience and knowledge of teams that deliver employability support to all-ages of clients. This has provided an opportunity to further develop the SL model, which is now based within communities in Kilmarnock, Galston, Netherthird and Dalmellington.
Councillor Elaine Cowan, Spokesperson for Education, and Children and Young People said: “To be named fourth in Scotland is an incredible achievement for East Ayrshire and I would like to thank everyone from our education and employability teams, our external partners, and our local employers who have all worked together to help ensure that young people throughout East Ayrshire can reach their full potential and achieve the best outcome possible.
“Of the 1318 leavers, 96.4% achieved a positive destination with the majority going on to further education, then higher education followed by employment. This isn’t about numbers though – this about young people and about achieving our aims of building a fairer economy - an ambition which has motivated drives towards supporting business, building community wealth, regeneration and investment in education – all aiming to improve skills and opportunities for people of all ages to make the most of their abilities and talents.
“The Council has worked very hard to develop partnerships with colleagues, community planning partners, the third sector, further education and of course, local businesses to ensure that we are doing absolutely everything we can to get young people ready for the world of work and supporting people of all ages to get back into work, and the data is proving that our approach is the correct one.”
Linda McAulay-Griffiths, Director of Education and Skills said: "I am delighted to see such positive outcomes for the young people of East Ayrshire reflected in these figures and our positioning nationally.
“I would like to thank all the teams across the Directorate, as well as our wider Council partners for their time and strategic efforts in ensuring that our young people have the best possible chance of sustaining a positive destination post-school.
“There is clear evidence of the work being done by teams in our schools, SL centres and our wider partnerships having a significantly positive impact on East Ayrshire's young people and we look forward to continuing to focus on improving this figure even further in time."
Margorie Harvie, Employability Manager added: “In East Ayrshire we pride ourselves on working collaboratively to achieve the best possible outcomes for our young people, our communities and businesses. The Skills and Learning model is clearly making the most of every opportunity to bring in the best possible help and advice to boost peoples lives, prosperity and businesses.
"The current climate is challenging, there’s absolutely no doubt about that, but by being innovative and thinking differently we are making a real difference, and I couldn’t be prouder of what has been achieved to date.”