5. NAC Education Service – Ayrshire Growth Deal Tool - Cabinet 20250902
North Ayrshire Council · 2 September 2025
Back to Cabinet — 2 September 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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NORTH AYRSHIRE COUNCIL 2 September 2025 Cabinet (Education) Title: NAC Education Service – Ayrshire Growth Deal tool Purpose: To update Cabinet on the development of the Education Service’s Ayrshire Growth Deal tool for use by educational establishments (learners and staff). Recommendation: That Cabinet: a) Notes the content of the report b) Endorses the purpose, use and further development of the tool within NAC educational establishments 1. Executive Summary 1.1 NAC Education service has developed and created a tool to support learners in career planning that is focused on the growth areas of the Ayrshire Growth Deal (AGD). This work supports a key priority within the Ayrshire Regional Skills Investment Plan 2022- 25. 1.2 The tool provides information around a range of careers and pathways, including the skills required and the subjects and qualifications needed to enter a particular career pathway helping our learners and education staff in NAC understand the regional opportunities, hopefully resulting in increased talent and skills development and retention. 1.3 Further development of content is planned for academic session 2025-26 and will involve partnership working with a range of stakeholders across schools and the AGD. 2. Background 2.1 NAC educational establishments (Early Years, Primary and Secondary) support learners’ development of skills for learning, life and work through a variety of learning experiences and curriculum offers. 2.2 Aligned with this, our establishments deliver experiences which link to employability skills and support learners in schools with pathways planning for positive and sustained post-school destinations which have a 5-year average of over 95%. 2.3 At national level, Education Scotland guidance on the Career Education Standard provides details on the entitlements and expectations for all key stakeholders (learners, schools, employers and parents/carers), whilst Developing the Young Workforce further plays a role in delivering the Young Person’s Guarantee.
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2.4 In session 2024-25, NAC Education Service undertook the development of a visual tool to support our educational establishments, in particular our schools, with providing information and guidance on learner pathways and which would complement mapping of curriculum areas to employment, training and further and higher education. 2.5 It was recognised that the best way to complement activity at school level, and to enhance the provision of pathways planning, was to create a tool which highlights careers and opportunities across a wide range of employment sectors. 2.6 The Ayrshire Growth Deal is a partnership being driven forward by the Scottish Government, the UK Government and East, North and South Ayrshire Councils to transform the economic prospects of the area. 2.7 Following input from the Ayrshire Growth Deal (AGD) programme at a skills event held in Ayrshire College in Autumn of 2024, it was decided that the focus on employment sectors would be based around the main growth areas in the AGD: aerospace and space, economic infrastructure, tourism, communities and energy, the environment & the circular economy. 2.8 The tool can support the delivery of the AGD in terms of awareness-raising among children, young people and school staff as well as, importantly, curriculum and pathways planning, and ultimately, further study and employment opportunities for the young people of North Ayrshire. 2.9 In terms of design, the tool is an easily navigated space to learn more about the AGD, what careers and opportunities there are, and what skills are required through the following sections: - What is the Ayrshire Growth Deal - Pathways to careers - Case studies: job journeys - Careers list 2.10 It is designed primarily for use for and by learners i.e. children and young people P4- S6. 2.11 The tool is accessed currently through Glow and is available to all staff and learners on a specially-designed tile. 2.12 Following Heads of establishments’ meetings in Winter 2024, schools are beginning to use the tool in a variety of ways to support learning around employability, skills development and pathways planning, for example, in focusing learning on careers. 2.13 Feedback from schools in June 2025 has indicated that finalisation of the tool would be useful, as well as adding in other useful inserts such as AGD videos/media content and, potentially, information around emerging AGD areas such as Life Sciences and Digital. 2.14 The Education Service has shared the tool with a wide range of colleagues and partners (NAC Employability and Skills, East Ayrshire Council and South Ayrshire Council Education, Skills Development Scotland (SDS), Ayrshire Regional Economic Strategy Working Group, Ayrshire Chamber of Commerce, Ayrshire Skills Group, AGD
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Programme Strategic Manager and the National Manufacturing Institute (Scotland) (which oversees the Digital Process Manufacturing Centre in Irvine) to seek views on further content for the tool. 2.15 The tool’s development and creation supports one of the priorities in the Ayrshire Regional Skills Investment Plan around increasing “awareness and involvement of education providers in Ayrshire Growth Deal” (Ayrshire Regional Skills Investment Plan 2022-25) 2.16 Partnership working between NAC Education Service and Employability and Skills has resulted in the development of a version of the tool being adapted for post-school users. 2.17 Further development of the tool or of a similar tool is being discussed with the AGD Programme Strategic Manager for across the 3 Ayrshire Councils. 3. Proposals 3.1 NAC Education Service will gather more exemplars of usage of the tool across educational establishments to support usage in schools and to enable further development of the tool. 3.2 A short-life NAC Education Service Improvement Group (involving a range of teaching staff across all 3 sectors) will undertake the development and finalisation of the tool’s content and approach across academic session 2025-26 and will provide updates to school staff on changes, additional materials added and examples of good practice for its usage with learners. 3.3 In terms of promotion of the tool with our schools: - Heads of EY establishments and Primary and Secondary Head Teachers will receive input on curriculum and learner pathways across 2025-26 and the tool will be revisited with them across the academic year. - An awareness-raising session has been organised for school staff to visit the Digital Process Manufacturing Centre on the 22nd September 2025 which will further support awareness of the AGD, our tool and its links to curriculum planning.
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4. Implications/Socio-economic Duty Financial 4.1 None. Human Resources 4.2 None. Legal 4.3 None. Equality/Socio-economic 4.4 The tool has the potential to support increased awareness of the AGD and as a result, support uptake in training, further and higher education courses and employment aligned to the AGD. Climate Change and Carbon 4.5 None. Key Priorities 4.6 NAC Council Plan 2023-28: Wellbeing: To transition to a wellbeing economy, delivering prosperity, wellbeing and resilience for local people: • Improving educational attainment and achievement and closing the attainment gap • Developing the Young Workforce and ensuring positive destinations for school leavers This work relates to the following priorities in the Education Service Plan 2023-26: • Improvement in attainment and achievement, particularly in literacy and numeracy • Closing the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged children and young people. Community Wealth Building 4.7 The AGD tool will support our children and young people in North Ayrshire with high- quality and relevant employability information on the AGD which in turn will help to enable them to move into positive destinations. Islands Communities Impact Assessment (ICIA) 4.8 None. United Nations Rights of the Child (UNCRC) 4.9 None.
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Consumer Duty 4.10 None. 5. Consultation 5.1 Not applicable. Sam Anson Executive Director (Education) For further information please contact Kathleen McCormick, Executive Manager (Education), on 01294 324443. Background Papers 0