THE organisation which is steering young people towards the workplace is gearing up to do more to ensure that the pupils from the likes of Lochgelly and Beath High Schools are getting the best possible start to their working lives.

The Developing the Young Workforce in Fife board was one of 22 set up in Scotland to promote the Employability idea which was pioneered at Lochgelly High six years ago.

It has guided a lot of senior school young people on the right path at the likes of LHS, Beath, and St Andrews High School, in Kirkcaldy, but chairman of the board, Bob Garmory, told Cowdenbeath Area Committee that the statistics showed that 61 pupils did not find a positive destination on leaving school.

That he said, was disappointing and he said that even one pupil not finding the right destination was something that they needed to try to consider how it happened.

Said Mr Garmory: "We cannot allow the youngsters of the Central Fife area down, our am is to help them get the best destinations their talents allow.

"We want to work with councillors, the schools, employers and parents to ensure that the system is working well."

Out of a combined number of 2,700 pupils 61 in Central Fife had failed to get a positive destination while in the Dunfermline area this had seen 74 fail to find the right path.

Ray Fernie, the former Lochgelly High teacher who was involved in developing Employability at the Station Road school, and is now Fife Council's Employability Co-ordinator, and he said that the aim has to ensure that there is no postcode lottery involved in pupils getting a positive destination on leaving school.

Said Mr Fernie: "Our aim has to be to get the impetus building in every school in Fife to help our aim to get a zero in the lack of a positive destination column."

Mr Garmory added: "There is a lot of pressure on teachers in our schools to achieve so much but it would be great to have staff spending a day on Employability from time to time to help keep building up momentum.

"Also it would be excellent to get former pupils who have succeeded in finding the right destination through the project to go back to schools and tell their success stories to the youngsters coming through the system."

Committee convener, Councillor Linda Erskine said: "There is no doubt that the work of Developing the Young Workforce board in Fife is making a real difference to leaving school for a lot of pupils and it is a very good project which I am sure we would like to continue supporting."

Mr Garmory thanked the committee for giving the opportunity to report on how things have been developing and added: "It is a big job to get the zero situation but we want to achieve it."