Next week is Scottish Careers Week and this year’s theme is “Shape the Future”. Here at the Council we’re getting involved through the Developing our Young Workforce Programme and by highlighting how we can support you to shape your future at Argyll and Bute Council.
We all have very different career journeys. Some of you may know that I started out as a trainee trading standards officer in Fife Council over 30 years ago. When I started out it was more usual for chief executives to have been lawyers or accountants but now chief executives across Scotland come from a range of backgrounds.
I was also told that career progression was up through the ranks of your own specialism and sideways moves into other areas weren’t encouraged.
As a bit of a rebel, I didn’t listen to that advice. I moved into waste management and environmental services, worked for different councils up and down the UK and skipped a tier in the hierarchy here and there.
I’m pleased to say that the world of work is much more flexible these days and that we strongly believe in growing our own. There are lots of options for developing you career in any direction and a myriad of different roles to explore.
As a learning council, we are showcasing everything we can offer our staff to make positive career and learning choices.
My career journey is just one of many. If you follow the link above you can find a collection of videos about the different paths some of our team have taken along with a range of resources to help you develop your career.
You may not want to become chief executive, you may not even want to move role so there is lots of information about learning and development opportunities too. But I do hope there are one or two aspiring chief executives of the future out there.
Check out my latest podcast about what we are doing for Careers week.
Have a lovely weekend.
Pippa
