Core Skills for Employability in Angus
- 5 weeks
- Awareness level
- Montrose
Supported by
Overview
This course focuses on confidence, communication, teamwork and problem-solving through practical, hands-on activities. You'll learn through a local employability design challenge, working together to explore everyday experiences and build skills that are directly relevant to work and life.
Who is this course for?
To join the course you must:
-
be aged 16-67;
-
live in Angus;
- be a parent, carer, guardian, or kinship carer;
and experiencing barriers to employment.
Full eligibility criteria is detailed in funding.
How will this course help you?
We will help you to improve your communication, teamwork, practical problem solving and creative thinking skills.
The course will give you the opportunity to try out and increase your confidence with speaking professionally and working with others.
You'll leave with a certificate to help you show potential employers what you're capable of.
Case Study
Supporting Families, Shaping Services: Tammy's Story
Earlier this year, Tammy began learning about service design while helping to build something entirely new. As a Key Worker within Dumfries and Galloway Council's Fairer Futures programme, Tammy and her colleagues weren't stepping into an existing service.
Course structure
- Week 1
- Week 2
- Week 3
- Week 4
- Week 5
Week 1
Experiences matter
You'll explore your own experiences and how these shape everyday decisions.
Taking part in a local employability design challenge, you'll practise describing experiences clearly and begin building your confidence, communication and teamwork skills.
You will gain
- An awareness of the impact your experiences have on your decision-making.
- Understanding of what a "service" is, and the process used to design them.
- Ability to describe service experiences.
- Experience in gathering knowledge from multiple people and finding the patterns and connections.
Week 2
Listening, learning, and sharing
You'll develop your active listening and communication skills by planning and carrying out simple conversations.
These skills will support you with interviews, working with others, and communicating at work.
You will gain
- Understanding of the relationship between numbers and information gathered from lived experience
- Awareness of user research, including approaches, ethics, and informed consent
- Experience in planning user research
- Experience in planning and practicing conversations
- Awareness of user research methods
Week 3
Research week
You'll have a break week, allowing time for reflection and applying your learning through a simple, supported task.
You'll be asked to to do a small research task (for about 30 minutes) to find out more information you can bring with you to week 4.
You will gain
- Practical experience following a user research plan
- Hands-on experience with a small selection of user research methods
Week 4
Making things better together
You'll learn all about problem solving and working together with others.
You'll chat about the things you've learned so far, identify patterns and work collaboratively to define problems and explore how you might solve them.
You will gain
- Experience in analysis and synthesis of user research
- Ability to define problems and develop opportunity statements
Week 5
Creating and sharing ideas
You'll generate ideas, develop simple solutions, and practise presenting them clearly.
You'll get the chance to build your confidence, creativity, and adaptability.
You will gain
- Awareness and experience of rapid idea generation tools
- Ability to filter and prioritise ideas
- Experience in service prototyping
- Experience of communicating service ideas
- Providing critical feedback
Timetable
Thursday mornings
Runs 5 November until 10 December
Session 1
- Thursday 5 November 2026
- 09:30 - 13:00
- 3.5 hours with two 15-minute breaks
Session 2
- Thursday 12 November 2026
- 09:30 - 13:00
- 3.5 hours with two 15-minute breaks
Session 3
- Thursday 19 November 2026
- 09:30 - 13:00
- 3.5 hours with two 15-minute breaks
Session 4
- Thursday 26 November 2026
- 09:30 - 13:00
- 3.5 hours with two 15-minute breaks
Session 5
- Thursday 10 December 2026
- 09:30 - 13:00
- 3.5 hours with two 15-minute breaks
Teaching and certification
Service Design Network accredited
Equipment
We will provide everything you need on the day.
Location
Tea, coffee, and refreshments will be provided during break times.
Funding
Fully funded for parents in Angus
The fund supports innovative, flexible, and locally tailored approaches that support parents to engage with existing employability provision and progress towards sustainable employment outcomes.
Who can take part
Further information
If you are already in work
You can take part whether you are currently working or not, if you think the additional support would help you move towards more sustainable employment.
Participation is typically supported through local services and may form part of a wider package of employability support.
If you are a parent, guardian, or kinship carer
We are particularly keen to support a wide range of parents and family circumstances, including those who may benefit most from flexible, tailored employability support.
This includes:
- Lone parent families
- Minority ethnic families
- Families with a disabled person
- Families with three or more children
- Families with children under the age of 1
- Families with mothers aged 25 or under
This course can also support you if you are a grandparent, guardian, or kinship carer looking after children where similar circumstances apply.
If you are already receiving employability support
This course is designed to work alongside your existing support, including key worker and employability services.
This course can support you at different stages of your journey by building confidence, skills and readiness to progress.
If you need support to take part
We know that jumping back into learning can feel like a barrier in itself for some people.
If you need help with accessing employability support, Montrose Community Trust can help.