Blogs & News

2019 Ideas Festival Biggest Issues Workshop: Employment

23 January 2020

During the 2019 Rural Youth Project Ideas Festival, delegates were asked to identify the biggest issues in their community, collated below, in relation to the following categories: education, employment, infrastructure, health and 'other'.

These issues then formed the basis of the Design Thinking Workshop, a human-centred approach to creating new and innovative ideas, led by Rosemary Scrimgeour – who runs rural architecture practice Building Workshop with husband Ben - who is graduate of the Scottish Enterprise Rural Leadership Programme (SERLP).

Employment

“Job opportunities with competitive pay.”

“Finding like-minded people.”

“Not much understanding or respect for many rural jobs/lifestyle.”

“The awareness of routes into different land-based industries.”

“More opportunities for jobs for Gaelic speakers.”

“Finding the right people to work with to achieve my dreams.”

“Lack of career options, lack of career aspirations due to less exposure.”

“Lack of nearby jobs.”

“More jobs in rural communities.”

“Lack of career options - bad internet connection.”

“Jobs tend to expect several years of experience before starting which can be hard to get otherwise.”

“Lack of opportunities to do remote working in more junior positions. Feels like flexible working is only offered to senior members/once you've proven yourself.”

“How to find great entrepreneurial business to work for.”

“Retaining young people in communities through lack of jobs and opportunities. There is no encouragement from the government.”