Project Description

Skills Demonstration at the Scottish Parliament

Inverkeithing High School was kindly invited along to the Scottish Parliament Gardens on Wednesday 17th May to take part in a Trades Skills Demonstration. The invite came following a successful trades event in school last September with Build Your Future.

15 pupils across S2 and S3 attended the event at Holyrood and worked with a variety of employers on different trades. Each young person was equipped with protective wear to fully participate at each stall. Every young person had a hands on experience of stone masonry, slating, painting, electrical wiring, insulation and thermal imaging. The event brought together the perfect mix of traditional trade skills and modern developments of technology in construction, Scottish Electrical Charitable Training Trust, Codaeh, NFRC, Compass Roofing, BE-ST and Skills Development Scotland were amongst some of the organisations there to support the day.

The event also attracted many MSP’s who kindly came out to see the young people working and to talk to them. Celebrity guest appearance from Anna Campbell-Jones on BBC’s Scottish Home of the Year was a welcome surprise for young people and staff. A truly fantastic event and a massive thank you to John McKinney for his invite.

DYW Coorindator Rebecca Horn commented on how proud she was to bring along students from Inverkeithing High and how well they all engaged with the event. It was so rewarding to see them all so focused and learning new skills.

Hear from some of the participants below…

The slating was hard. I found it really difficult to control the tool and the slate.

I loved the electrician bit. I didn’t think I would be good at it but it was quite easy. The guys has good banter too.

I didn’t know what a stone mason did but I can see their work in buildings now.