Youthbuild West Dunbartonshire

Youthbuild assists young people who experience considerable disadvantage in accessing sustainable employment and comprehensive training in construction and related trades.  Youthbuild West Dunbartonshire works to tackle the underlying issues that prevent young people from entering and sustaining employment and capitalises on opportunities created by considerable local regeneration and investment. 

Youthbuild Eligibility
Young builders should be aged between 16-19 years old and should reside within the West Dunbartonshire area.
Young builders must meet one or more of the eligibility criteria or have faced such barriers previously:
 
Alcohol/Drug Issues
Care Leaver
Ex-Offender
Literacy/Numeracy
Lack of Qualifications
Social Work Involvement
Long-term unemployed (6 months)
Health or Medical Problems
Chaotic Family Background/Lack of Support

The Programme- How it works
The Youthbuild model is a combination of training, support and work experience which involves the Young builders working on a live site. 
 
The young builders receive payment of a training allowance of £72.50 per week plus a bus pass for 13 weeks before a further 6 months of full time employment with the building contractor where they will be paid the “going rate” for the job they are doing.  A wage subsidy of 50% is paid by Youthbuild to the contractor to assist with the cost of this particular part of the programme.
 
In total the programme last for 9 Months, with the young builder spending their first 5-6 weeks with the project staff at Youthbuild before being placed with a contractor for an initial trial period of 6 weeks and upon successful completion of this trial period a 6 month contract with the employers.

 
Training Provided (Initial 5-6 Week Programme)
The training provided to the young people at the initial 5-6 week training period is as follows (Please note this is subject to change based on industry needs and requirements):

CSCS Card
Emergency First Aid
Hop-Up for Kwikstage
Abrasive Wheels
Manual Handling
Slabbing & Kerbing
Health & Safety
Working @ Heights
Intro to Bricklaying, Joinery, Plastering and Painting & Decorating
Wall Tiling Workshop
Introduction to Bosch Power Tools 
 
We also provide young people with a range of personal development/in-house training including:
CSCS Mock Tests and Preparation for test
CITB Learning Exercise
Numeracy & Literacy
Interview Techniques & CV Preparation
Debt, Money & Housing Workshops
Smoking Cessation & Sexual Health Workshops
Site Visit and talk by Construction Company’s Director
Practical Sessions in our Timber Kit House (Wall Tiling, Plastering, Stud Partitioning, Window Fitting)
 
The Action For Children Youthbuild Programme based in Centre 81 will be accessing use of the facilities within Centre81 to complete a number of workshops. These workshops will include use of the IT suite to carry out CSCS workshops, use of the large meeting rooms for construction theory and personal development workshops and use of the large gym hall area for physical health related activities.
 
During the training period Action For Children workers will evaluate the effectiveness of each training session by completing feedback sheets for contruction trainind and personal development workshops. These feedback opportunities will allow us to adapt any workshop requirements so that tey are specific and beneficial for each young person.

Every young person who submits a referral form through their agency will be guaranteed an interview.  It is at this interview that the young person must demonstrate an interest in working within the construction industry, an enthusiasm towards completing the Youthbuild Programme and convince the panel of their full commitment to the whole 9 month Youthbuild programme.