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 April 2017
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Happy Easter and welcome to the April edition of our Employability e-bulletin.
Firstly a bit of news from us:
- Book your place at the May Fife Employability Forum by clicking here - the topic is apprenticeships.
- Nominations are open for FVA's flagship Awards Ceremony for volunteers, community groups and voluntary organisations! This year's event will be held at The Carnegie Conference Centre in Dunfermline on Wednesday 07 June 2017.
- We're recruiting for a Research Assistant Internship, closing date Wednesday 19 April.
The seventh phase of
Community Jobs Scotland
has been launched. If you haven't yet made the most of this resource we highly recommend it!
We have been talking about the DWP 's Dynamic Purchasing System
a lot over the past few months. They are still having issues with people uploading service offers and matching with business cases submitted by Jobcentre Plus teams. Following a training session with DWP in March, FVA have produced a
short guide
to the system. And if you are a third sector organisation who needs help registering please
get in touch
- we are here to help!
As always make sure to let us know details of your courses for 2017 by sending details to
David MacPhail so we can include these in the e-bulletin.
The deadline for content to include in the next e-bulletin is Monday 24 April 2017.
All the best,
The FVA Employability Team
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Fife Employability Forum
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Fife Employability Forum - book your place
The details of our next Fife Employability Forum are:
Date: Wednesday 24 May 2017 (please note change of date)
Time: 9.30am - 12.30pm (registration starts at 9.00am)
Venue: New Volunteer House, 16 East Fergus Place, Kirkcaldy, KY1 1XT
This Forum will focus on Apprenticeships
, come along to:
- Find out what an apprenticeship is and who they are targeted at
- Get clarification on the landscape of different types of apprenticeship - what is the difference between a modern apprenticeship and a foundation apprenticeship?
- Hear from organisations who have used apprenticeships in the past and how they benefited their organisations
- Learn about funding available for apprenticeships
Know Your Network 2017 - Save the date
This year's Know Your Network event will take place on Wednesday 06 September 2017.
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Dates for Your Diary
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Date: Friday 19 May 2017
Time: 10:00am-4:00pm
Venue: University of Strathclyde, Technology and Innovation Centre, 99 George Street, Glasgow G1 1RD
2017 will see new child poverty and social security bills coming before the Scottish Parliament - which will have huge significance for all those advising and supporting families.
At the same time the roll out of universal credit and the introduction of a 'two child limit' for key benefits are among UK Government reforms that are radically changing the nature of social security.
CPAG in Scotland's Welfare Rights 2017 conference will give delegates an opportunity to hear from political leaders, welfare rights experts and academics about the latest developments and the implications for their work.
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Date: Wednesday 31 May 2017
Time: 9:15am-3:30pm
Venue: Edinburgh
Co-production is the process of utilising organisations, groups and individuals' skills, lived and professional experience to develop better services.
This event will explore how can we draw on the knowledge, ability and resources of service providers and the people who use services to improve outcomes.
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Training and Learning Opportunities
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A number of Training and Learning Opportunities can be found on the
FVA website.
We have highlighted some key ones that we think may be of interest below.
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West Fife Enterprise - Catastrophic Bleeding
Date: Friday 21 April 2017
Time: 10:00am-12:00pm
Venue: West Fife Enterprise, Forth View Industrial Estate, Newmills, Dunfermline KY12 8TL
West Fife Enterprise are running a two hour training course on catastrophic bleeding and the use of tourniquets and haemostatic dressings. The UK Resuscitation Council has now allowed this training for work places where there is a potential danger of this, e.g agriculture, forestry, etc.
Tickets are £15 per place. To book your place or for further information contact
simonwarr@wfe.org.uk.
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Scottish Autism - Personal Coping Skills and Strategies
Date: Tuesday 25 April 2017
Time: 9:30am-12:30pm
Venue: Lynebank Hospital, Halbeath Road, Dunfermline, KY11 8JH
For many people on the autism spectrum, anxiety can be a barrier to learning and to enjoying everyday experiences. This seminar will support parents, carers and professionals to understand the issues relating to anxiety and anxiety management.
Scottish Autism will provide an overview that will help give a context for understanding how and why anxiety affects people on the spectrum. Supportive strategies and approaches will be explored by presenting real life case studies of individuals across the spectrum and age range.
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Disability Discrimination at Work - Managing the Legal and Practical Issues, Edinburgh
Date: Tuesday 09 May 2017
Time: 12:00pm-2:00pm
Venue: One Edinburgh Quay, Edinburgh, EH3 9QG
Following on from their session on stress at work, BTO Solicitors will consider the latest position in relation to disability discrimination law and practice. Disability discrimination claims are becoming increasingly common and the law can be complicated.
This practical session will provide delegates with an up to date understanding of disability discrimination law and practice and offer practical pointers for managing the often complex and competing rights and issues that can arise in this area.
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Mental Health and Stress Awareness - Training for Trainers
Date: Thursday 11 May 2017
Time: 9:30am-4:30pm
Venue: Rothes Halls, Kingdom Shopping Centre, Glenrothes, KY7 5NX
To mark national Mental Health Awareness Week in May this year, the Health Promotion Workplace team will be launching a project to support workplaces in Fife to understand more about the topic of mental health and stress. They are inviting representatives from workplaces in Fife to attend a 'Training for Trainers' session.
This session is suited to all staff that may have an interest or responsibility for staff health and wellbeing including Managers, HR, Occupational Health, Health and Safety, Organisational Development, etc.
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Poverty Awareness Training - Supporting Hard Up Households
The
training programme contains a range of courses and e-learning opportunities that will be useful and relevant to anyone working with individuals and families in Fife who are struggling to make ends meet.
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FVA training for volunteer managers
We offer information on PVGs -
contact us directly to find out more.
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| Employability Courses |
| Kingdom Support and Care - Recruitment Day
Date: Friday 14 April 2017
Time: 12 - 4.00pm
Venue: Brag Enterprise, Main Street, Crosshill, Lochgelly, KY5 8BJ
Want to learn more about what it means to be a support worker and what the role involves? Then come along and meet Kingdom's Support and Care staff.
Staff will be available on the day and they will be able to assist with the completing application forms.
For more information please contact the Support and Care Admin Team by calling 01383 741220 or e-mail:
enquiries@ksc.scot
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South West Fife CLD Youth Work team - Fife Council Activity Agreement
Start Date: Rolling Programme - Term Time
Time: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10:00am-3:00pm
Venue: Camdean Community Centre, Primrose Lane, Rosyth
Activity Agreement is for 16-19 year olds who have no positive destination - work or college. The programme supports participants to identify where they need to strengthen to help moving on to college, training or work. The programme covers personal development; ABE support; CV building; opportunity to complete Youth Achievement Award (Nat4).
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With David Brawley recently having left Apex Scotland there is a new contact for people looking to sign up to their CSCS course.
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What's happening in Fife
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FVA's flagship Awards Ceremony for volunteers, community groups and voluntary organisations is back!
This is your chance to recognise and reward the effort of volunteers, organisations and community groups that are serving the people and communities of Fife.
This year's event will be held at The Carnegie Conference Centre in Dunfermline on Wednesday 07 June 2017.
Click the title link to make your nomination.
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Young people with disabilities and health issues in Fife recently celebrated completing a pre-Apprenticeship Academy Programme, called Accessible Fife. This was a partnership programme developed through the Opportunities Fife Partnership Health & Disability Provider Group, managed by FVA and with delivery lead by Fife Council.
Accessible Fife is designed to tackle the imbalance of people with disabilities and health issues entering Modern Apprenticeships, which currently sits at about 3% of apprenticeships take ups. The project was funded through Skills Development Scotland.
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Positive destinations for Fife's young people
Figures released on Tuesday 07 March from the Scottish Government about the trends in school leavers' destinations across the country reveal that almost 93% of Fife's pupils are going onto 'positive destinations' when they finish their secondary school studies.
The School Leaver Destination Return (SLDR) by Skills Development Scotland looked at the next steps of the 3,712 Fife school leavers in 2015 - 2016.
To read more about these figures click the title link.
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Quick Guide to the DWP's Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS)
FVA hosted a training session on the DWP's new Dynamic Purchasing System on Tuesday 28 March 2017.
As a result of this training session we have written a quick guide to help support information out there already on the system.
Don't forget that we offer one to one support to third sector organisations, contact us to find out more.
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DWP - Personal Independence Payments
To help support information on Personal Independence Payments (PIP) we have linked to an information guide on PIP above. This guide includes info on:
- The PIP quick guide;
- PIP Tool kit;
- Independent review (published 30.03.17);
- Disputes process; and
- Medical Assessments carried out by Atos Healthcare.
This information has been provided by the DWP (April 2017).
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| Employer Toolkit Launched to Help Recruit and Retain More Single Parents and Care Leavers
A first-of-its-kind employer toolkit designed to help businesses recruit and retain more single parents and care leavers has been launched by the DWP.
People from disadvantaged groups face challenges that many others do not - such as having to work around childcare requirements, lack of formal qualifications or gaps in their employment history. Ministers want to help more people from these groups to get into lasting employment and reap the benefits that come from work.
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This Oil and Gas sector portal has been set up specifically to support both individuals and organisations affected by the impact of falling oil prices and to provide a central platform through which individuals can seek new job opportunities and be contacted by companies interested in their skills and experience.
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New experimental statistics have been published showing the proportion of people living in persistent poverty in Scotland between 2010 and 2015.
Spending brief periods with a low income can be less damaging than living in poverty over a number of years. The persistent poverty figures show the number of individuals living in poverty for three or more of the last four years.
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Positive News for Employment and Economy
- Scotland continues to outperform the UK on female employment and inactivity rates
- Scotland continues to have the second lowest youth unemployment rate in the EU, behind Germany
Dr Gillespie's report sets out the key trends in the Scottish economy in the second half of 2016, and the outlook for the coming year.
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SCVO are pleased to report that phase 7 of the CJS programme was announced by Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in February. This will give them the opportunity to create another 700 third sector jobs over the next year. They'll be in touch shortly with more details on how to access the posts.
Training is crucial for all CJS employees. So SCVO arrange
various accredited courses for them to put their £200 training budget towards.
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Almost £58 million will be spent mitigating the harmful impact of the UK Government's welfare cuts on households across Scotland.
The £7.7 million increase in funding for Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) next year comes as the Scottish Government takes full responsibility for DHP funding, including £18.5 million transferred from the Department of Work and Pensions as part of a negotiated three year settlement. The £57.9 million made available to local authorities will be split as follows:
£47 million to fully mitigate the bedroom tax for more than 70,000 households - up from £45.4 million.
£10.9 million, up from £4.8 million, to help mitigate other UK Government policies such as the Benefit Cap and Local Housing Allowance rates.
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Grants of up to £10,000 and mentoring support are on offer through the School for Social Entrepreneurs in partnership with Lloyds Banking Group.
The school is looking for individuals starting up and running organisations creating social and environmental impact across Scotland.
It will provide successful applicants with the cash and a dedicated business mentor from Lloyds Banking Group to start and grow their own businesses.
They will also get to take part in a comprehensive learning programme run by the school.
Further information on the grant can be found
here.
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Each year the national TSEF (Third Sector Employability Forum) gathers information on the impact their members make in delivering Employability Services in Scotland.
They ask their members to provide, in confidence:
- Information on the scale and value of their operations
- Their views on some of the key issues faced
The information they gather provides them with a robust evidence base in their discussions with the Scottish Government and others, and helps them to shape their response to the challenges that lie ahead as they seek to influence the design of Scotland's future Employment Services.
The survey will be open for responses until the end of April 2017 and can be accessed via the title link.
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At least 2,000 people with direct personal experience of the current social security system are being recruited to help shape Scotland's new system.
'Experience Panels' made up of people from across the country who use the current system will give their views on the design of Scotland's new system and how to build and refine a better model.
Registration is live. People can register online and by post, while a phone-line will also be available for those who do not have online access or need additional support.
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The labour market figures published on 15 March point to modest improvement in employment prospects:
Unemployment is 1,584,000, down 13,000 from last month's published figure.
Youth unemployment (including students) is 554,000, down 33,000 on the quarter.
There are 2.1 unemployed people per vacancy. Learning and Work Institute estimates this figure may fall next month.
The employment rate is 74.6%, up 0.2 percentage points over the quarter.
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Fife Voluntary Action
Tel: 0800 389 6046
Fife Voluntary Action is the Third Sector Interface for the Fife Council area.
supporting, developing and representing community groups,
voluntary organisations, social enterprises and volunteering
Registered Office: Craig Mitchell House, Flemington Road, Glenrothes, KY7 5QF.
Fife Voluntary Action is a Company Limited by Guarantee, Registered in Scotland No. SC203613 and Registered Scottish Charity No. SCO28457.
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