More than 600 young people have enjoyed a busy recruitment event that helped inspire their choices for training and work.

The Youth Recruitment Event was held recently in Auchenharvie Academy, Stevenston, as part of Scottish Employability Day and gave local employers an opportunity to engage with their future workforce.

Employability services and partner organisations who can help young people discover job and training opportunities also attended.

The event was delivered by North Ayrshire Council’s Employability & Skills team in partnership with the school, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), local employers and a wide range of community partners.

As well as helping young people shape their future, the event also supported delivery of the Good Jobs workstream within North Ayrshire’s Collaboration for Health Equity in Scotland (CHES) programme.

CHES – led by Public Health Scotland and Professor Sir Michael Marmot’s Institute for Health Equity – was launched in February 2025 to strengthen and accelerate actions that will reduce health inequities for people living in North Ayrshire, Aberdeen City and South Lanarkshire.

Three key workstreams – Good Start, Good Jobs and Good Health, are underway locally in three different areas to make life better for people by focusing on employment, ill-health prevention, early years, education and community-based support.

CHES work locally has been led by North Ayrshire Integration Joint Board, which is the governing body of North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership, and the Community Planning Partnership Board, which brings together public organisations including the Council, Third Sector groups and the NHS.

The projects focus on three key principles:

  • Good Start – to give every child the best start in life, concentrating on the Fullarton, Castlepark and Bourtreehill areas of Irvine. This workstream involves families, schools, nurseries and local groups to help deliver more joined-up support that helps children and their families thrive
  • Good Jobs – with a focus on fair employment and good work in the Saltcoats Central, Ardrossan Central and Stevenston Hayocks neighbourhoods. This workstream centres on fair work, decent pay and skills development as well as creating new routes into secure jobs and training, and
  • Good Health – to strengthen the role of ill health prevention within the Garnock Valley. This workstream is looking at increasing affordable healthy food provision, improving local wellbeing services and designing community-led solutions.

At Auchenharvie Academy, the young people had a chance to speak directly to employers from a range of sectors, including construction, engineering, manufacturing, hospitality, administration, customer service, childcare and care services.

Information, advice and support were also available to help them prepare for working life, including guidance on CV development, interview preparation and employability support.

The event attracted strong support from across North Ayrshire, with around 30 partner organisations and employers taking the time to get involved.

Councillor Jean McClung, Cabinet Member for Education and Young People said “Events like this one are vital in helping our young people decide, potentially, what their future looks like in the world of work. It is important for them to gather as much information and knowledge as possible now, so they have the tools to make important decisions. I would like to thank everyone who attended, and also extend my thanks to the businesses and other organisations who gave up their time to take part. Supporting young people into fair, sustainable employment is crucial – and we need strong community partnerships to make it work.”

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The event forms part of the Council’s wider commitment to tackling inequalities and improving access to employment opportunities through Good Jobs.

Wellbeing is at the heart of local life and is integral to A North Ayrshire that is fair for all. That is why the Council is fully supporting CHES — so that everyone has the opportunity to live longer, happier and healthier lives.