Young People

Whether you are about to choose your subjects or dive into the world of work, here is some support and advice for you.

Pathway Planning

Remember when choosing your subjects, it’s not all about the qualifications!

These are really important, but you can also think about the different skills you’ll build through different options like wider achievements. These could be mentoring, or leadership, work experience or cooking – all of them are valuable as they teach you new things that are useful for life.

These skills can also help you a lot when you are applying for jobs or apprenticeships as you can put them on your CV, or when you are writing a personal statement to apply for university or college. All of your subjects are teaching you skills all of the time, and so are the things you get up to outside of school so you already have lots to speak about. Subject choice gives you the chance to think about how you want to develop the skills you already have, or start to build new ones by experiencing something different.

Everyone can learn new skills – no matter who you are or what level you are working at!

Have you thought about doing the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award? The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is a youth charity providing young people with the chance to develop skills for work and life, whilst giving them the opportunity to experience the outdoors as part of a team and achieve group aims.

Developing the Young Workforce bridges the gap between education and employers.

Subject Choices tool | My World of Work

School Links – North East Scotland College

All the info you need to help you relax, support your friends and plan your next steps, whatever your results with Results Day – Young Scot.

How do I get more help? You can talk to your Careers Advisor or go to My World of Work

What are MCR Pathways?

MCR Pathways is a school-based mentoring programme. The charity was founded in 2007 to address the outcome gap between care-experienced young people and their peers. We support young people in or on the edges of the care system to realise their full potential through education.

Our vision is that every care-experienced and disadvantaged young person in Scotland gets the same education outcomes, career opportunities and life chances as every other young person.

In 2018, the programme began expanding across Scotland with the Young Aberdeen Talent (YAT) programme launching in St Machar Academy the same year. In 2020 the programme was launched in Dyce, Harlaw, Hazlehead, Lochside and Northfield Academies.

How does it work?

Young people are referred by school staff and encouraged to participate in the YAT programme. We support young people with diverse, engaging and inspiring opportunities to help them identify their talent and have the confidence to progress to a positive post-school destination. We engage young people through group work, mentoring and other activities.

Group Work

S1 and S2 pupils work with their school’s Pathways Coordinator and participate in weekly group work sessions. These are focused on building confidence and life skills, and also improving Literacy and Numeracy levels. This allows the Coordinator to build trust and an individual relationship with each young person, preparing them for mentoring.

Mentoring

Each young person is matched with their own mentor from S3 stage onwards. Pupils meet with their mentor once a week for 50 minutes and receive guidance and support. Mentors build a relationship, helping their young person to develop confidence and self-esteem. We ask our mentors for a commitment of at least one year.

The mentoring relationship is unique as young people establish a friendship with someone who’s there, just for them and is not a teacher, parent, guardian or counsellor. The impact on their life is huge. Recent ScotCen research shows 81.6% of mentored care-experienced pupils left school for college, university or a job, compared with 56.3% of those young people not being mentored.

How can I get involved?

We are hoping to help even more young people in the area reach their potential and are looking for volunteer mentors to support our Young Aberdeen Talent programme.

The only qualification you need to be a mentor is the desire to help. All young people are different and have different needs, so it’s important that our mentors come from all walks of life. MCR recruits, fully trains and PVG checks volunteer mentors who are matched with a young person that shares similar interests, hobbies or career aspirations.

The building of the relationship with a young person is facilitated by our fantastic MCR Pathways Coordinators who are based in each school and work with our young people on a daily basis.

We’re asking you to #BeTheBridge between a young person’s talent and life possibilities. For only one hour per week, you can change a life.