Proposals put forward to explore ways of refreshing the workforce programme were agreed by elected members at a meeting of the Executive Committee on Tuesday (24 August).
For any organisation, staff are its greatest asset. This is particularly true for Falkirk Council, where thousands of employees help to deliver essential services to residents every day.
However, with over 50% of our employees aged over 45 and only 6% under 24, the Council’s workforce plan highlights the need to further develop and recruit new employees to bridge skill gaps and ensure we can continue to fill posts so we can provide services in the years ahead.
Seeds of change
At the meeting, members agreed the modern apprenticeship and graduate programmes be further developed to ‘grow our own’ and introduce more young people to the Council’s workforce.
The work will be led by our Employment & Training Unit (ETU) as part of the Employability project together with HR.
Employability is one of 31 Council of the Future projects that aim to modernise and improve services and help deliver on our three corporate priorities –
Communities,
Enterprise, and
Innovation.
The ETU and HR will work with managers over coming months and hold briefing sessions and workshops on each of the programmes to share case studies and good practice.
Funding to help towards salary costs for training placements will also be accessed from the various Scottish Government programmes available.
Councillor Cecil Meiklejohn, Leader of the Council said:
“Opening up opportunities for young people by developing our graduate and modern apprenticeship programmes will bring many benefits. It will allow the Council to refresh the workforce by bringing young people into local government, the majority local to the Council area, and of an age where they are likely to be with us for some time.”
Related content