Lockhart Campus celebrate four-year employability milestone

North Ayrshire’s flagship Additional Support Needs school, Lockhart Campus, has

recently celebrated the milestone of its four-year partnership with Developing the

Young Workforce Ayrshire (DYW).

The Business Breakfast celebration, held on Friday 28 November at Lockhart

Campus, opened with a speech from Depute Head Teacher John Herd celebrating

the school’s flourishing four-year partnership with DYW Ayrshire.

The breakfast shone a spotlight on the incredible work of dedicated pupils and

mentors.

It was also an opportunity for the school to pay tribute to special guest Walter Smith

MBE, Business Ambassador from Developing the Young Workforce Ayrshire – and

his support of this initiative to help and grow the potential of local young people.

DYW and Lockhart Campus have worked together on a range of employability

projects over the last four years with the support of lecturers from Ayrshire College

and local businesses.

Community partners, enterprises, businesses and parents and carers attended the

Assembly hall at Lockhart Campus to find out more about the employability projects

that have supported over 100 pupils in the past four years, with over 96% involved

moving on to a positive destination this year.

Lockhart Campus currently has twelve ambitious Developing Young Workforce

projects that are part of the Lockhart Skills Academy.

From bike upcycling and barista pop-up to outdoor skills and freshly baked cakes on

campus, the Lockhart Skills Academy workstreams – funded by Developing the

Young Workforce Ayrshire (DYW) – are supported by school staff to empower pupils

to develop core skills in: literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing along with

independent living.

Walter Smith MBE said: “The Developing the Young Workforce programme was first

launched in 2015 with the aims to help young people prepare for the world of work,

develop life and employability skills and achieve positive destinations. And one of

ways this is done in Ayrshire is through innovative school projects.

“Lockhart Campus opened in August 2021 and the school wasted no time in

contacting DYW to open the first of three projects, Lockhart Coffee Shop, Lockhart

Growers and Lockhart Bee Kind by April 2022.

“There is a strong focus in today’s educational world to broaden school curriculums

including vocational and lifestyle projects. In Ayrshire this is certainly the case and a

shining example of this is at Lockhart Campus with twelve DYW streams, the most of

any school ASN or mainstream.

“Lockhart Campus should be truly proud of its achievements. It has been an honour

and privilege to be associated with Lockhart Campus and I look forward to seeing

more of the projects flourish in 2026.”

North Ayrshire Apprentice of the Year, Lockhart pupil Lewis Hughes was one of

several pupils celebrated. After being part of DYW and Lockhart Outdoor Education

he secured employment with North Ayrshire Streetscene as an apprentice.

Lewis shared: “Lockhart’s support and the opportunities through DYW helped me

find out what I’m good at and turn it into a career. Learning outdoors and doing

practical work gave me confidence and skills that I now use every day in my job.”

In addition to providing a wide range of vocational skills which will enhance the life

skills and employability prospects for the pupils who participate in the projects,

pupils also have the opportunity to obtain vocational, enterprise and employability

qualifications in a number of areas.

Councillor Shaun Macaulay, Cabinet Member for Education and Young People

shares: “Each of the DYW projects being celebrated are designed to provide an

important vocational provision for our students. Pupils work on a range of SQA units

as part of their learning and units are selected to complement the twelve Skills

Academy initiatives.

“The partnership is a brilliant example of how the council is working with local

businesses and employability partners to provide hands-on opportunities to learning.

Well done to everyone involved.”