Portlethen Academy has beaten off competition from schools across Scotland to win an award for its work with local employers, and will attend a national final in London next month run by the British Chamber of Commerce.
The school was winner of the Chamber of Commerce Education Business Partnership Award for Scotland and recently collected the award at an event hosted by Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce.
The school attributes its success to its focus over a number of years on creating strong links with business partners such as Maersk Oil and Hydrasun and it has also created a Portlethen Partnership Industry Team.
The school takes part in a variety of initiatives to build links between employers and young people from work experience programmes to collaboration with organisations such as Career Ready UK.
The school also adheres to Scotland’s Youth Employment Strategy Developing the Young Workforce as well as Curriculum for Excellence and last year delivered a workshop at an ADES (Association of Directors of Education in Scotland) conference called Learning 2 Earning.
Alongside work experience placements Hydrasun has provided training to staff and pupils from the company’s chief executive Bob Drummond and this now forms part of the school’s training programme.
Work with Maersk Oil has involved participation in the Maersk Stars programme as well as pupils regularly writing for the company’s newsletter.
Head teacher Neil Morrison said: “Our partnership, the school and wider community are proud of the strong links we have created. Parents are aware that their children gain an excellent awareness of the world of work through the strength of the links we have made here at the school and I thank our partners for helping us gain this award and look forward to the final.”