SDS and SABC partnership

Strengthening engagement with minority ethnic employers is at the heart of a partnership between Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and the Scottish Asian Business Chamber (SABC).

The organisations have been working together to ensure minority ethnic businesses are accessing the full range of business support SDS offers, including through Apprenticeships.scot, the SDS Employer Hub and My World of Work.

Craig Peoples-Simpson, SDS Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Executive, said: “This partnership has been a rich source of information for SDS, helping us to ensure we are working to serve all the people and businesses of Scotland.

“The insight and understanding we’ve been able to gain into working with the Chamber is already having an impact on businesses and will grow as our partnership continues.”

The partnership is focussing on engaging with business in minority ethnic groups providing tailored support and communication – with a series of employer visits and business engagement events well underway, with more planned for the future.

Visits have already taken place to a range of minority ethnic owned businesses across industry, including retail, hospitality and healthcare.

Junaid Ashraf, who co-founded and leads the Chambers, said: “Our work with SDS has focussed on tailored face to face business support and communication, and community involvement. Face-to-face meetings have been key, to build trust and rapport between SDS and the business community.”

The partnership is also allowing SDS to better understand common obstacles faced by minority ethnic business owners and how SDS could help.

Neil Cunningham, Employer Engagement Executive, said: “I’ve really come to understand the value that the Scottish Asian business community place on face-to-face engagement.

“So many of the people I spoke to are serial Entrepreneurs, it means they have a portfolio of different business ventures with differing skills needs and challenges, which were only fully understood as our professional relationship developed.

“It’s been a great experience and I’m looking forward to continuing to build the relationships and support the businesses going forward.”

The partnership has also seen Apprenticeship Information Sessions with young people and their parents and carers taking place highlighting Foundation, Modern and Graduate Apprenticeships opportunities across the huge variety of frameworks available.

Feedback on apprenticeship sessions has been overwhelmingly positive, with attendees planning to spread the word of the benefits of apprenticeships to their own networks, and plans already in place to hold similar events in the future.

Oumar Akram, who co-founded and leads the Chambers said: “The work we’ve done over the last few years is already reaping rewards in terms of visibility and awareness of all SDS has to offer our members and under -represented communities, and we’re looking forward to continuing to build on that.

“For me, this has always been about building advocacy within the membership for SDS support and apprenticeships in particular, and I can already see and hear that happening.”

Craig Peoples-Simpson added: “The learning that we’ve had from the partnership is invaluable.

“We will continue to work with SABC to ensure we pull of that knowledge through into future engagements and look at how we can widen those out fully across SDS.”