voluntary organisations, social enterprises and volunteering
voluntary organisations, social enterprises and volunteering
voluntary organisations, social enterprises and volunteering
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Interview with the Manager of Opportunities Fife Partnership
Created: 09/04/2014
News/Events Category: General NewsAs the new Manager of Opportunities Fife Partnership we wanted to ask Adam Dunkerley a few questions:
1. What did you do before joining Fife Council as the Opportunities Fife Partnership Manager?
Before joining Fife Council in February I spent the last 7 years working for Employment Enterprise Consultancy, a private employability training provider. I had a variety of roles with EEC over the years, starting as an employability tutor, working first with unemployed adults (over 25 years), then running a number of successful programmes for 16-24 year olds; specialising eventually in those looking to move into retail, hospitality or customer service related industries. I was involved in running programmes in Inverclyde, Renfrewshire, North and East Ayrshire as well as Falkirk and Glasgow in that time.
In the past 4 years I was responsible for Community Engagement Hubs (delivering Information, Advice and Guidance) in Edinburgh, East Kilbride and Clydebank (for Edinburgh, South Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire Council’s respectively); before moving on to the Operations Manager position within the business and overseeing the delivery of all programmes, including our Wage Subsidy and Employability Programmes.
2. What made you move to your new job?
I decided to make the move to the new role because after seven, very happy years with EEC it felt like the right time to move on to new challenges. I had worked with Fife Council through the Employability Fund Consortium last year and felt they provided a fresh and innovative approach to employability that I had not experienced in all the local authorities that I had worked in partnership with. The job seemed interesting and challenging and when I read the Fife Economy Partnership plan and the Council plan I felt there were worthwhile objectives that I wanted to be instrumental in achieving.
3. Why do you think employment services matter?
Employment/employability services matter because in order to address any of the inequalities we see in our society I believe that increasing employment is a key tool. If you consider the “Five Great Evils” in society that William Beveridge identified in 1942; squalor, ignorance, want, idleness, and disease, I don’t think we have managed to cure any of them.
If we rephrase we are still dealing with these issues today in terms of Housing, Education, Poverty, Employment and Health. By assisting people to access, achieve and sustain employment we assist them to make a greater contribution socially and economically to the communities they live in. Employment is not just about doing a job and earning money, but it provides a purpose, a reason to progress and participate, it reduces isolation and the negative health (and mental health) connotations that can arise from long-term unemployment. Through progression and training people gain access to greater opportunities; allowing them to re-invest in their local communities and provide a better place to live for their families.
4. What do you see as being the key challenges for OFP and employability provision in Fife over the coming years?
The key challenges for the OFP over the coming years are the same as for every other Local Authority in Scotland: To provide services that meet the needs both of the clients looking for employment and the employers who are looking for suitable, local employees.
Our programmes need to link closely with prospective local employers to ensure that the training and skills that our clients receive is giving them the best possible opportunity to meet employer needs and significantly increase the number of working age people who are in paid employment.
The second challenge is to ensure a continued culture of enterprise. We must ensure that employers in Fife are encouraged to grow and expand to ensure that there are real job opportunities for the clients that are progressing through the employability pathway.
5. When you were little what did you want to be when you ‘grew up’?
I have never considered myself being ‘grown up’! If you had pushed me back then I would probably have said a Stormtrooper from Star Wars. I was very disappointed to find out they were all clones.
Thanks Adam and we wish you all the best in your new role.
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