Young people shaping the Young Person’s Guarantee
In response to the enormous impact of the pandemic on young people’s lives – the Scottish Government launched the Young Person’s Guarantee.
The Guarantee will give young people the support they need to succeed – based on their own personal ambitions – focusing on those who need it most. It aims to give all 16-24-year-olds the opportunity of a job, apprenticeship, education, training, or volunteering.
Young Person’s Guarantee Youth Leadership Panel
At Young Scot, we’ve been supporting 16-24-year-old volunteers from different backgrounds and experiences to take part in the Young Person’s Guarantee Leadership Panel.
Since last year, the Panel has been exploring the governance for the Guarantee to ensure it meets the evolving needs of young people. They’ve also been helping to shape the Guarantee and decision-making processes by feeding in their views to the Scottish Government. You can find out more about the panel members here.
Activity over the past seven months
The Panel has been meeting since November 2020. One of their first sessions was with Sandy Begbie, CEO of Scottish Financial Enterprise, and the team at the Scottish Government who are leading the implementation of the Guarantee. Together, they identified the key needs of the Guarantee. Shortly after they met with Skills Development Scotland and shared their thoughts on what young people need from the Guarantee’s website. They also identified their priority issues to help the Scottish Government focus their work on the issues that matter most to the Panel and other young people.
Recently, Panel took part in a Scottish Local Authorities Economic Development Group (SLAED) meeting and updated local authorities on their activity. They also co-created a marketing campaign to promote the Young Person’s Guarantee to young people across Scotland. They focused on how to best explain what the Guarantee is and how it will benefit young people. The campaign will run till the end of July – raising awareness about the Guarantee and directing young people to useful resources and information.
The future of the group
As phase one of the Young Person’s Guarantee Youth Leadership Panel comes to an end, the young people met and reflected on their seven months of activity. They thought about what went well, what could have been done differently, what they have enjoyed and got from being involved. Some of the feedback includes:
“Being involved in the implementation group and SLAED meetings gave us the chance to speak to people and begin ensuring things happened.”
“The work so far has enabled us to help young people who have undoubtedly been affected by the pandemic.”
“Feels like people are now listening to what we have to say. Being involved and having our voices heard can only be a good thing.”