Job opportunities
for you and your clients
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Happy holidays and welcome to the December edition of the Fife employability e-bulletin which is packed with the latest news and events to keep you in high spirits during the cold season.
If you are pushed for time then just read the latest from the Scottish Government on commissioning for the newly devolved services from 2018.
If you have some time, grab a coffee and get comfy as there's plenty of other good stuff going on - including a quick run-down about some of the things we've been up to as November has been
a month of 'two halves' for us at FVA.
The second half of November has been all about events with another successful Employability Forum welcoming over 40 people to network and build awareness of key developments around employability in Fife.
We have also facilitated a series of seminars in partnership with the DWP, social work criminal justice team and the Alcohol and Drugs Partnership looking at improving support for people with issues around substance misuse.
But enough about the past ... what else is on the horizon?
Our first Forum of 2017 will be jointly held with the third sector Health and Social Care Forum. Save the date!
And as always we are pleased to share a whole host of
employability courses happening in the area - in particular we recommend you check out
Accessible Fife which offers a pre-apprenticeship academy to people with a health issue or disability, now recruiting for January 2017.
And for you we have another round of workshops on
Work Capability Assessments - make sure you book early to avoid missing out on this opportunity.
The deadline for content to include in the next e-bulletin is Friday 06 January 2017.
All the best,
Christine Davison
Development Officer
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Fife Employability Forum
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Fife Employability Forum
Save the Date:
Date: Wednesday 08 February 2017
Time: 9.30am - 12.00pm
Venue: Rothes Halls, Glenrothes
Topic: Employability, Health and Social Care
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Dates for Your Diary
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Date: Thursday 08 December 2016
Venue: Central Edinburgh
This seminar will discuss the policy priorities for skills development in Scotland.
It takes place in the context of the 2016 annual report on the Scottish Government's Developing the Young Workforce strategy for reducing youth unemployment, due to be published in December.
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Date: Friday 09 December 2016
Time: 12.00 - 3.00pm
Venue: 5 High Street, Dunfermline, KY12 7DL
Circles Dunfermline Office is having an open day to offer people the opportunity to come along and meet some of their advocacy workers, learn about what they do and how they can be of benefit to you or someone you know. Everyone is welcome!
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Date: Monday 12 December 2016
Time: 9.00am - 1.30pm
Venue: Fife Renewables Innovation Centre, Ajax Way, Methil Docks Business Park, Methil, KY8 3RS
You are invited to a joint working seminar to look at employment and employability provision in the Levenmouth area. To find out more or to book your place click the title link. Please note that ticket bookings will close at 12noon on Wednesday 07 December 2016 so book quickly!
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Funding Opportunities
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Voluntary Arts Scotland has published a new guide to fundraising for voluntary-led groups, which many groups and individuals in your area may find useful.
You can view the guide in digital form by clicking
here.
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Businesses and organisations can apply for a share of £500,000 to develop solutions that will help Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) manage short-term sickness absence.
The submission deadline is 5.00pm on Friday 16 December 2016.
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The Scottish Veterans Fund will support veterans and ex-service charities with £600,000 of funding over the next three years, including a three-year £240,000 contribution from Standard Life to support veterans' employment.
The closing date for applications is 2.00pm on Friday 20 January 2017.
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The European Charlemagne Youth Prize aims to encourage the development of European consciousness among young people, as well as their participation in European integration projects.
Young people aged between 16 and 30 from any EU Member States can submit projects for the European Charlemagne Youth Prize. Projects can be submitted individually or, preferably, in groups.
The closing date for applications is Monday 30 January 2017.
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The Galaxy Hot Chocolate Fund is now accepting applications for small, one-off awards of £300.
Local charities, community groups, schools and individuals from across the UK and Ireland are invited to apply for an award to help support sporting or leisure activities or hobbies that are beneficial to individuals or communities.
Entries can be made at any time up until 11.59pm on Sunday 26 February 2017.
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The Bank of Scotland Foundation is an independent charity supporting local, regional and national charities working at the heart of communities across Scotland.
For details of the 2017 deadlines click on the title link.
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The Small Business Bonus Scheme can eliminate or substantially reduce the tax paid as business rates (also known as non-domestic rates) for eligible small businesses located in Scotland.
For more information and how to apply click on the title link.
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Training and Learning Opportunities
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| Volunteer Management Training - Fife Voluntary Action
Don't miss out on FVA's last volunteer training course in 2016 -
Introduction to managing risk in your volunteer program
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If you're involved with managing volunteers within your organisation make sure to sign-up to this last course.
Date: Wednesday 07 December 2016
Time: 9.30am - 1.00pm
Where: Craig Mitchell House, Flemington Road, Glenrothes, KY7 5QF
Book your place by clicking the title link.
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Date: Wednesday 07 December 2016
Time: 9.30am - 4.00pm
Venue: Business Gateway, Coatbridge
This is a full day participative workshop divided into a morning session on costing and an afternoon session on pricing. Further information as well as an online form to book your place can be found through the title link.
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Date: Thursday 08 December 2016
Time: 9.30am - 4.30pm
Venue: Lynebank Hospital, Halbeath, Dunfermline, KY11 4UW
This event is free to attend and will provide an opportunity for participants to understand the principles, values and key themes of asset-based working. Participants will also practice using asset-based approaches such as asset mapping, co-production and appreciative inquiry, in practical sessions.
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Date: Thursday 08 December 2016
Time: 10.00am - 4.00pm
Venue: CPAG in Scotland, Ladywell, 94 Duke Street, Glasgow G4 0UW
The introduction of universal credit will fundamentally change the system of benefits and tax credits. This one-day course aims to equip advisers to advise clients on eligibility and entitlement to universal credit. It examines, through practical exercises and case studies how the new benefit works and through discussion gives you an opportunity to consider the likely effect on different groups of claimants.
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Date: Tuesday 13 December 2016
Time: 9.30am - 4.30pm
Venue: Cameron Hospital, Cameron Bridge, Windygates, KY8 5RR
On completion of this course, participants will have:
- Clarified what facilitation means and understood the role of the facilitator;
- Explored how attitudes and values impact on facilitation;
- Identified their own strengths and areas for development as a facilitator;
- Experienced a number of facilitation tools 'in action' and have considered how to select the appropriate tool for the task; and
- Planned a short facilitation session and developed a design template.
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Work Capability Assessments
Date: Tuesday 24 January 2017
Venue: Craig Mitchell House, Flemington Road, Glenrothes, KY7 5QF
We're delighted to announce two workshops on understanding Work Capability Assessments to be delivered by DWP.
This will outline what the Work Capability Assessment involves and how to appeal against a decision.
Book your place by clicking the link above next to your preferred time.
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| Employability Courses |
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Dates: Tuesday 13 and Thursday 15 December 2016.
These two-day courses will run on the dates above. For more information click the title link.
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BRAG will run their employability course on the following dates:
16 January 2017 - 10 February 2017
27 February 2017 - 24 March 2017
Each course will run for four weeks. Monday and Tuesday 9.30am - 3.30pm and Wednesdays 9.30am - 12.30pm, at BRAG, Crosshill Business Centre, Crosshill.
This is an opportunity for people to build on existing skills, explore their aspirations and barriers to success, meet new people, increase confidence and undertake a recognised qualification.
BRAG will supply bus tickets to the course so would require all referrals by the Thursday before the Monday start date at the latest to allow these to be posted out.
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DEAP - Sector Skills Training Courses
DEAP have a number of training opportunities available for people looking to get a career within the Construction Trades or in the Care Sector. Their courses can be fully funded through ILA if eligible.
For more information click on the title link.
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Accessible Fife is a fantastic opportunity for young people (16-24 year olds) with health conditions and disabilities in Fife.
It's a pre-apprenticeship Academy which will prepare clients for the following apprenticeships:
- Rural Skills Apprenticeship with The Ecology Centre, Kinghorn;
- Horticultural Apprenticeship with Cambo Heritage Trust; and
- Business and Administration Apprenticeship in a Communications Role with Fife Centre for Equalities
To find out more or to apply click the title link.
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| Clued-Up's Drop In
Clued-Up are offering a drop in service for under 25s in Cowdenbeath and Lochore where they can give help, advice, drug and alcohol support in a friendly and safe environment.
For further information click on the title link.
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What's happening in Fife
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Recommendations on how to improve the health and wellbeing of women and children who have experienced homelessness in Fife as a result of domestic or sexual abuse, were welcomed by members of Fife Housing Partnership (FHP) and Fife Violence Against Women Partnership (FVAWP).
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Restoration is a community project providing activities for people in recovery across Fife.
A copy of their December events calendar and further information about the project can be found
here.
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Greener Kirkcaldy are currently planning their projects and priorities for next year, and they would love to know what you think.
One of their ideas is for a project to inspire and support people to use greener means of travel, i.e. being less reliant on the car or driving more efficiently. They would like to get their community's views on what they should include in this project.
They have created a
short survey. It should only take five minutes to complete and your individual responses will be kept confidential.
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Exciting changes are afoot!
Pegs Bailey, Employability Development Manager at FVA attended an event on 01 December looking at the Devolved Employablity Support Services for Scotland. Click the title link to read Peg's summary from this event - it's a really useful summary honest!
The Scottish government are hosting an event for suppliers on the devolved services:
Date: Friday 09 December 2016
Time: 10:00am to 12:30pm
Venue: 5 Atlantic Quay, 150 Broomielaw, Glasgow, G2 8LU
Book by contacting
Scott Angus, Scottish Government directly but make sure to book quickly as spaces are going fast!
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SDEF Recruiting people with experience of Social Security System
The Scottish Disability Equality Forum (SDEF) are looking to recruit people with experience of applying for and receiving Social Security benefits to help them design and test the new system.
Anyone looking for more information or to express their interest should contact:
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If you haven't noticed yet the DWP have moved to a Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) as a new way of commissioning local provision.
Provision previously purchased by means of Flexible Support Fund will now be purchased using DPS.
As this will be the sole "route to market" it is imperative that organisations who have previously used Flexible Support Funding or who might be interested in delivering for JC+ in the future register on the new system.
DWP are holding a short presentation and Q&A on DPS in Edinburgh with more events to follow in Fife.
When: Thursday 08 December 2016 (10.00am)
Where: Edinburgh Jobcentre Plus Office, 11-13 St Andrew Street, EH2 2BT
In the meantime FVA are here to help our third sector colleagues so let us know if you need any support with registering your organisation. Contact
[email protected]
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The UK Government launched a national consultation on work and health on 31 October 2016. They want health professionals and service users to help them identify the best ways in which they can transform the employment and health support systems in order to get to a position where individuals are able to access the right services, at the right time, personalised to their circumstances.
The deadline for feedback on this consultation is Friday 17 February 2017.
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The Scottish Public Health Observatory (ScotPHO) has published the following two reports on lone parents in Scotland:
The findings of the papers are particularly pertinent to the following policy areas: social security, employability, child poverty, early years, children and families, and fair work.
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SAMH have published a report on the impact of applying and being assessed for Personal Independence Payments and the impact this has on the mental wellbeing of the applicants.
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Warmer Homes Scotland is designed to help vulnerable people make their homes warmer and more comfortable by installing a range of energy saving measures. The Scottish Government is offering assistance to homeowners and private sector tenants struggling to heat their home, who have lived in their property for at least six months, and who meet the qualifying criteria.
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New research by Citizens Advice Scotland gathered information on over 1,200 journeys from 133 home locations to key essential services. This excellent report provides feedback on experiences of people traveling to job centres and their place of work. In this section it was found that "Job Centres were within walking distance for 10% of the locations we surveyed, mostly in urban areas. For those using a bus to travel to the nearest Jobcentre the average distance being travelled was 13 miles, with a median journey time of 40 minutes."
For more information and findings click the title link.
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| 2016 SURF Awards Shortlist Revealed
SURF is delighted to reveal the 2016 shortlist for their prestigious national awards scheme, which identifies and celebrates success in revitalising Scottish communities. The SURF Awards are delivered each year by SURF - Scotland's Regeneration Forum, in partnership with the Scottish Government.
The full shortlist can be found via the title link.
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The latest statistics from the Learning and Work Institute have been published, some notable figures include:
Unemployment is down 52,000 from last month's published figure.
The number of unemployed young people has fallen by 34,000 since last month's figures, down to 591,000.
The employment rate remains unchanged over the last quarter, at 74.5%.
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Fife Voluntary Action
Tel: 0800 389 6046
Fife Voluntary Action is the Third Sector Interface for the Fife Council area.
supporting, developing and representing community groups,
voluntary organisations, social enterprises and volunteering
Registered Office: Craig Mitchell House, Flemington Road, Glenrothes, KY7 5QF.
Fife Voluntary Action is a Company Limited by Guarantee, Registered in Scotland No. SC203613 and Registered Scottish Charity No. SCO28457.
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