Interview: Sandy Campbell, founder of Leith-headquartered youth employment charity WorkingRite

Can you give details of your background and why you started WorkingRite?

I founded WorkingRite because I believe schools alone are not sufficient to prepare young people for working adulthood – particularly those leaving school feeling they had failed. I saw a gap for a practical approach to learning; harnessing the knowledge of older people in the workplace.

I didn’t do well at school. I headed to Yorkshire at 17 and did my growing up in the jobs I found. Becoming active in trade unions, I learned a lot about politics, and sharpened my determination to make social change happen. Living in a pit village when the colliery shut, a fuse was lit: what would happen to working class youth in this new post-industrial age?

Returning to Scotland, I saw an obsession with qualifications as the only route to a job. The idea started to germinate of creating a different model that would be both practical and an aid to maturation – a working rite of passage into adulthood – hence the name of the charity.

What are the main initiatives of the charity?

We have projects in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Ayrshire and Argyll where we support around 300 young people each year with more than 80 per cent achieving a job, apprenticeship or course. Each project worker supports around 20 young people each year and finds the right business to provide a work placement for each of them.

All these projects are based on practical learning in the workplace alongside experienced adults and a tailored one-to-one mentoring match with the young person learning skills. This has provided us with a solid base as we begin to focus more on young people with complex barriers to the workplace, particularly post-lockdown.

We coach them in customer care, rules and culture of the workplace, initiative and confidence; sleep patterns, diet, exercise, social media usage/risks and the relationships in their lives that could affect their chances of success.

Our new schools’ project for 15-year-olds is Rite to Work. We piloted this with Leith Academy last year. A similar pilot is running in Kilmarnock. Each school identifies pupils at the start of S4 who are set to leave, but whom the teachers feel are least likely to achieve a positive outcome.

We coach them weekly in a venue outside of school. With success rates over 80 per cent, we have now been approached by schools in Glasgow and Argyll. This model is still in its early days, but we are optimistic about its potential for growth.

Tell us about the businesses that have benefited and what they gain out of it/any example/s...

We don’t specialise in a single industry. Many companies are in the construction trades, hospitality, childcare, or retail. We are always looking for new firms.

Businesses see WorkingRite as a straightforward way of finding the right young person. We don’t ask for promises that they will take the young person on full time at the end of the placement, and they know that WorkingRite is at the end of the phone if they need help. Yet nearly every business does keep them on as a full-time employee.

They contribute financially to the trainee’s weekly allowance. This ensures that the business takes the placement seriously. And because many firms were started by people who didn’t do well at school, yet were entrepreneurial, they really “get” these young people.

What sort of impact do the businesses have on a young person’s life...

The businesses are providing a role-model of a “good first boss”. People from small businesses are an overlooked resource for young peoples’ development.

I have witnessed countless examples of mentors going beyond expectations. A couple of plasterers in Leith helped their 16-year-old placement find a new home when he was made homeless. Another noticed their young lad was having trouble reading. They tapped into his love of football by getting him to read out football reports.

What have been/are your main challenges...

Ours is not an easy model to scale. Our strength is in the individualised support we provide. The better we become at supporting those with complex challenges, the greater the need for individualised solutions.

Our biggest challenge happened ten years ago when private equity investors saw potential for our model in England. The promise of investment that would end all our funding worries was too great to resist. When they realised the scaling difficulties, they pulled out. The charity was on the edge of collapse. But what doesn’t break you makes you stronger.

How is the venture funded and what have been the hurdles with that ...

Most of our early funding came through Skills Development Scotland (SDS). Now, it comes from three main sources: Scottish Government, local authorities and trust funds, with support from the Robertson Trust, Think Human Foundation, STV and BBC. People run marathons and do the KiltWalk on our behalf. The most recent source of funding has been schools who contribute to the cost of our new Rite to Work model. This is the area most likely to grow in the future.

Our recurrent challenge is the time-limited nature of funding provision. Two months into this new financial year we, and probably most charities, are living hand to mouth. Thankfully, we can ride out the storm for the time being.

Why do you feel Edinburgh was the natural birthplace for the charity?

I am a proud Leither, while one of WorkingRite’s strongest supporters was the late “Queen of Leith” Mary Moriarty. The first organisation who came forward to support my idea was the Port of Leith Housing Association.

Another staunch Leither, [Kwik-Fit founder] Sir Tom Farmer, funded one of our first projects – the re-painting of the iconic lampposts down by the Shore. Leith is in our DNA.