Case Study: Developing the Young Workforce

We've been working with Developing the Young Workforce for over eighteen months now- when we won our first tender with the organisation we had no idea how the project would unfold.

We initially pitched to work with DYW West Lothian in April 2017- we were successful in the tender and went on to collaborated closely with their great team to develop a portal of information for businesses, young people, education and parents so each group could easily find information needed to support young people in to employment. Working with a flexible and scaleable online platform we were able to create strong, clean and clear design to concisely signpost users to the information relevant to them. 

Knowing it was important to capture the attention of their various users, DYW West Lothian were clear that they needed to include video content on their portal meaning the information was accessible to each relevant group. We created two series of videos for use on the portal and across social media too. The first was to showcase each of the nine main industry sectors in the West Lothian area. We filmed on location within local businesses, who were able to bring personality and insight into working within that sector. We also created videos to give hints and tips from employers to young people starting out on their way to getting a job, and another to show other employers that there are varied and tangible benefits to recruiting young people.

The website launched in the summer of 2017 where we handed over the site to the DYW team and trained them to make amendments and updates themselves, meaning they can easily keep their portal up to date with new information. DYW West Lothian continue to develop their website and have since added further video content, animations and regularly updated news.

At this point, having this base structure and branding in place, we were then able to offer portals of a similar type to other DYW regional offices, so we went on to develop portals for both DYW Borders and DYW Forth Valley. It was fantastic working with each team, who had their own ideas of how the portal would work best for their areas. Although the base website is the same, their new ideas and vision for their regional site means the websites have different feels and information, in line with what works best for their local audiences.

The most recent project we have worked with DYW on was the development of their overarching DYW Scotland website. Based again on the original design, this site  gives an overview of the objectives of Developing the Young Workforce as well as an introduction to each area of Scotland covered in the initiative. Once again video was an important factor and we interviewed each regions' chairperson at our studio in Leith for use on the site. This launch of this site was recently announced at the Scottish Festival for Learning, along with a promotional video that we created from the existing footage we had gathered.