Community Trade Hub offers support outwith school to pupils across Fife

Tom Adams (Labour) and Kathleen Leslie (Conservative) were at the Leven project last week to see the Guided Starts Academy It offers a learning environment outside of school where young people can experience education focussing on building skills for emerging industries - vocational skills on offer range from construction to cooking.Cllr Leslie, who represents the Kinghorn, Burntisland and Western Kirkcaldy ward, said: “Since the pandemic and the interruption to education, attendance at school has experienced a dip. Having visited a number of schools around Fife, I am aware of the amount of work going on to engage with disaffected youngsters but we perhaps need to also learn to be more innovative in our thinking.”

“If a pupil is not attending school, their chances of attaining qualifications falls and this impacts on life-long opportunities. The Community Hub offers a possible alternative. There is no one size fits all in education and if young people can learn vital life skills and achieve a qualification that will have the potential to take them onto an apprenticeship or college then we must seriously explore other options such as the Hub to do this.”

She added: “The hub is working with a number of secondary schools across Fife, including Kirkcaldy High and Levenmouth Academy, and I look forward to discussing this further within the Council. We need to become more creative in our approaches towards education.”

Cllr Tom Adams, whose ward includes Levenmouth Academy which has seen pupils attend the Hub added: “Not every kid can leave school and go to university and a learning environment like the Trade Hub gives those kids an outstanding opportunity to learn skills in preparation for a career outside of school”.