The housebuilder has provided three young people as they transition from S5 into S6 with paid, four-week internship this summer, alongside 18 months of mentoring support from an employee in the business.

Career Ready is a social mobility charity that works with employers, their employees, schools, and local authorities to provide young people in S5/S6 with a deep, immersive programme of a paid internship, mentoring, skills masterclasses, and workplace visits, alongside their school studies. Each student receives a paid internship at the workplace of their mentor.

Taylor Wimpey East Scotland’s internships for this year took place in June, July and August with two pupils taking the opportunity to get experience on-site at developments in Inverkeithing and Edinburgh, while another young person joined the Technical team based at Taylor Wimpey’s regional head office in Dunfermline.

Working within a team and supported by a dedicated line manager and their mentor, the interns had the opportunity to meet and network with colleagues, develop important employability skills, while also contributing to Taylor Wimpey’s business and to team projects.

As a supporter of The Career Ready Programme since 2018, Taylor Wimpey East Scotland is proud of the opportunities and benefits the scheme offers young people in high schools across Fife.

Career Ready also forms part of its programme to attract and nurture young talent, as well as helping to future-proof the house building industry. It is also a great way to highlight the breadth of different opportunities that exist within its business and the team at the housebuilder’s regional office in Dunfermline is thrilled with the outcomes that this year’s three mentees have achieved.

Shinnade Bain, Jason Muldon (aged 16) and Jack Vaggers (aged 16) were each matched with a mentor at Taylor Wimpey East Scotland, with each young person eager to explore different work experience within its business.

Suzanne Granger, project manager for Taylor Wimpey East Scotland, and mentor to 16-year-old Shinnade said: “I’m very proud of our involvement and support of the Career Ready programme. There are so many positives for us as a business, as well as for me personally as a mentor, and I genuinely believe that our interns benefit so much from the programme.

“Mentors and students are matched based on a whole host of criteria including our personalities and interests, rather than what the company does. Naturally if a student has a particular interest that can be best satisfied by our business environment and the other criteria stack up then it’s a match!

“Career Ready isn’t always about giving a young person an opportunity to learn about your company or industry; it’s about helping them to navigate the wider question around their next step from school; to explore what that might be and to give them the confidence to make positive decisions about their career.”

An important aspect of Career Ready mentor is being able to offer students a four-week paid placement, as Suzanne added: “At Taylor Wimpey we will work hard to get the right combination of mentor skills to satisfy what students are interested in exploring and sometimes we have to be creative! When I met Shinnade for the first time she told me that she wanted to go to college to study tattoo artistry but she wouldn’t be able to do that until she was 18. We talked about her interests and she said that she would love the challenge of working out on-site as a painter.

“She’s absolutely thrived and has enjoyed her four-week placement. She enjoyed it so much that she applied for and was successful in securing a position with us a trainee painter apprentice.”

Anne Wexelstein, Career Ready director for Scotland, said: “We’d like to thank Taylor Wimpey East Scotland and their people for working with us to invest in young talent. Paid internships and mentoring are key in helping the young people we focus on develop the workplace skills and confidence they need to succeed in the world of work, and on more of a level playing field. I’m always encouraging other businesses like Taylor Wimpey East Scotland to join us in giving these young people the opportunities and support they need and contributing to making real The Young Person’s Guarantee.”