PICTURES: Focus North’s Wick conference highlights need to develop young workforce and area’s importance for renewables – ‘We are not remote; we are at the centre of the UK’
One of the key areas discussed at last week’s business conference at Mackays Hotel in Wick was investment in young people across the area, and focusing on their needs.
Focus North programme manager Peter Faccenda opened the third annual business conference by apologising for the absence of the group’s chairman, Simon Middlemas, who had unfortunately taken ill.
Summing up the event, Mr Faccenda said: “It was an extremely positive day, and it was fantastic to see the young people explain the benefits of working in Caithness. It was good to watch their interaction with the audience and get an understanding of what they want to do in the future.”
He went on to reference a Scottish Government youth employment strategy called Developing the Young Workforce (DYW), which was designed to “better prepare young people for the world of work”.
“The Caithness Chamber of Commerce is one of our partners and DYW is helping organise the programme that we’ve been doing over the summer.” When asked about fears over depopulation in the far north, Mr Faccenda said this was not a major focus of the conference, which instead focused on the “opportunities coming to the region” and keeping young people informed about these.
S5 pupils from Wick High School who bravely took to the stage to discuss their aspirations for working and living in the far north were Aden Heppel, Brooke Hill and Logan Pedrossian-Smith. They discussed these matters with DYW north Highland school coordinators Nicola Swanson and Alice Nicolson.
Chair of the Focus North advisory board, Cllr Raymond Bremner, said that the annual conferences have been getting “increasingly exciting”.
“There are lots of people who have a vested interest in making sure that the north is part of the agenda for population growth and investment. Good quality jobs, transport, infrastructure, skills and skills development are all on the agenda.
“There was a focus on the contribution from young people and about sustaining the future for them by making Caithness and Sutherland an attractive option for future development. The contributions that the three representatives made for developing the young workforce were commendable.”
Chief executive of the Caithness Chamber of Commerce, Trudy Morris, said: “I thought it all went extremely well. I think having the young people involved through the surveys that we did and videos they participated in beforehand showed what they are hoping for in this region and what is lacking.
“The audience will hopefully think about how we move forward from that. We had three students from Wick High School but we also had Thurso High School participating in the video that we shot. We also had an apprentice, a graduate and a graduate apprentice on a panel as well.”
Ms Morris said the DYW initiative has been running for 10 years and has been a great success with the use of mock interviews and employer visits, along with introductions to motivational speakers.
She said that the conference provides a great opportunity for businesses to grab networking opportunities. “These things take time to come to fruition but we have some positive stories with regard to that.
“The articulation of the scale of investment that this area is going to be involved in and the money that is going to be put behind that was discussed, and we need to pick up the pace concerning that.”
During the conference, Ms Morris revealed that there had been 8197 interactions between young people and 158 local employers last year. It was also revealed that Highland Council is about to improve the work experience system, moving to WorkIt. There was a call out for local employers to sign up to it to provide work experience.
It was also announced that there will be £400k set aside for the FutureSkills apprenticeship scheme, which supports 3-4 year apprenticeships, and further funding for a pilot graduate placement scheme; there was a call out for developers to support this fund.
Director of strategy and regional economy at Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Martin Johnson, announced there will be a £100bn investment flowing into the region over the next 15 years, which he says will “be even more transformative” than the oil and gas boom. “To deliver that means collaboration, workforce planning, housing building, transport infrastructure and supply chain growth,” he added.
Mr Faccenda talked about the importance of the far north as an area providing renewable energy, stating: "Edinburgh and London will rely on what happens here for their energy, so in that sense we are not remote; we are at the centre of the UK."
Finlay MacDonald from Highland Council talked of an investment plan delivering £2.1bn over 20 years, funded by two per cent of Council Tax annually.
Looking back over Focus North 2025, Mr Faccenda said: “It’s been extremely positive and collaborative. People have come together and shared their experiences to create an energetic day. There have been opportunities from the project developers in the area and we had the chance to hear what young people think is important to them.”
He believes that one of the key areas where Focus North can create positive outcomes is in providing a strong base for networking opportunities.
“If you listened to the panel at the end, the managing director of Dounreay and the project director of Murphy’s were talking about how they’re going to collaborate, so that’s a real positive.”
More information, including a video of the conference, can be accessed at: focusnorth.scot/conference-2025/
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