Comhairle nan Eilean Siar joined Developing the Young Workforce, partners, and local employers from around the Western Isles on 17 August for a partnership event in the Stornoway Town Hall.
The event aimed to join both employers and partners for new connections to be made, ideas to be shared and opportunities for joint working to be discovered.
Working in partnership is vital to tackling inequality and poverty, to improve job outcomes, to upskill and reskill those unemployed and to increase skills to meet current and future local economic demand.
The first half of the event consisted of presentations being given on the importance of retaining a young population and workforce on the Island, and highlighted the significant opportunities that are available to them.
All partners and employers then participated in small workshops where they worked through scenario questions and questionnaires to develop support packages for participants of all ages.
Cllr Paul Finnegan, Chair: Education, Sport and Children’s Services Committee, said:
“Having a local employability partnership event, that allows partners and the Comhairle to work collaboratively, is crucial in developing a strategy to maintain a young working population throughout these Islands.”
“We know the difficulties the islands face in regard to population decline, so having these events to share ideas and knowledge of how to tackle this threat is really encouraging.”
