Gaelic Careers Day
A Careers Day for Highland Gaelic Secondary pupils was officially opened at Eden Court in Inverness today, March 16th by Calum Maclean, one of “Siuthad’s!” Young Ambassadors, also a film-maker and broadcaster.
The annual event, “Siuthad!” (meaning Go On!), is aimed at both Gaelic Learner and Gaelic Medium pupils in S2 from schools across the Highlands. “Siuthad!” showcases a range of Gaelic-related jobs and careers and encourages young people to continue with Gaelic studies towards qualifications in the senior stages of High School. This can provide young people with extra skills and qualifications that provide for greater career and training opportunities when leaving school.
“Siuthad!” is a partnership between The Highland Council, Skills Development Scotland, Bòrd na Gàidhlig and Highlands and Islands Enterprise and is organised by The Highland Council’s Gaelic Team and Skills Development Scotland.
Almost 300 Gaelic pupils came from High Schools in Inverness-shire, Ross-Shire, and Lochaber find out more about the range of Gaelic career opportunities available to Gaelic speaking young people when they leave school.
A number of national organisations were present and a wide range of representatives were available to inform the pupils of the career opportunities available within the Gaelic sector and also where speaking Gaelic is considered to be a distinctive additional skill. These included representatives from several industry sectors such as education professionals, the arts, sports, music, early learning and childcare specialists, publishers, translation skills and drama.
As well as being informative and relatively informal, the event aimed to be fun for those attending as they got the chance to participate in a range of interactive activities including music and drama workshops.
Calum Maclean, said "Having Gaelic has given me fantastic opportunities in the world of media, and has given me opportunities, that I would not otherwise have had. It allowed to learn film-making skills, work on a wide variety of television and radio programmes and gave me the skills to create my own projects, particularly for social media.” He continued, “I do much of my work in Gaelic and hope that other young people are inspired to continue using their Gaelic for their future careers."
Highland Council, Community Learning and Development Officer (South Area) said: “Siuthad!” has been a huge success again this year and it is superb to see young people engaging with an event that offers them ideas regarding future employment. She continued, “It is important that we continue to support young Gaelic speakers from the Highlands with their career choices from an early stage. Events such as this showcase the diversity of career pathways that they may wish to follow.”
Derek Mackenzie, Skills Development Scotland, Gaelic Development Officer said, “Siuthad!” raises awareness of the benefits of having Gaelic Skills. The event itself provides informative and interactive workshops across diverse sectors such as Media, Teaching and Creative Industries. These will highlight to pupils the rewarding and high quality career opportunities that will be open to them in future years”.
left to right: Joanne McHale (BnG), Calum Maclean (Speaker), Margaret Mulholland (HC) and Derek Mackenzie (SDS).
Organisations present at the event included the Forestry Commission, Highlife Highland, UHI, HIE, Historic Environment Scotland, Fèisean nan Gàidheal, MG ALBA, Obraichean Gàidhlig, the Care and Learning Alliance, Skills Development Scotland, the Crofters Commission, and a range of other exhibitors.
For further information please contact Margaret.Muholland@highland.gov.uk
Winner of the Egg raffle prize Kirsty Crawford (Culloden Acad) with LtoR Marianna MacLean,(IRA) Blythe Wilson (Dingwall Acad), Anika Dowling (Culloden Acad) and Sian Jamieson (IRA).