Parents and Carers

Parents and carers are at the centre of learning for young people. Youth awards can make a positive difference to your family:

• They support and encourage young people to reach their potential.
• It is a positive way to learn outside of the classroom and school environment.
• The connect young people to active organisations, employers, supporters building a strong support-network around the individual young person.
• It is an opportunity to gain qualifications that recognise each small step that young people take on their journey.
• It opens up amazing experiences that help young people discover their talents and strengths.
• It is a gift, like no other, that your child will carry with them into the future.
• It provides access to the skills, qualities and credentials - backed by stories that employers want to hear.

The Curriculum for Excellence requires schools to recognise the breadth of young people’s achievement, to include achievements gained outside of school through e.g. youth work, volunteering and hobbies, and not simply their ability to pass exams. This means that there is a growing role for community activities to support and complement school based learning.

Employers say:

Business is clear – we need an education system which develops rigorous, rounded and grounded young people. This means a system which focuses as much on the development of key attitudes and attributes – such as confidence, resilience, enterprise, ambition – as on academic progression and attainment.

– Delivering Excellence – an approach for schools in Scotland, CBI, 3/2015

Any job requires a set of technical skills, but employees also need a range of ‘soft skills’. Employers increasingly recognise how youth work awards help young people develop these ‘soft skills’, and consequently make them more valuable as employees in the workplace.