A free course on digital skills will be offered in Assynt in an effort to reverse the area’s trend for high unemployment.
Tuminds, a social media training company based in Inverness, has teamed up with Highlands and Island’s Enterprise (HIE) to develop a social media training programme to help unemployed people living in North West Scotland get back into work.
The five day programme, funded by HIE and run by Tuminds, will start on Wednesday. It is being piloted in Assynt and could be rolled out across other regions of the Highlands and Islands, although this has not been confirmed.
The programme’s aim is to introduce social media skills to unemployed people living in the region, particularly those looking for careers in Scotland’s burgeoning digital marketing sector. Participants who finish the programme and pass an exam will also be offered a job interview, providing direct access to local employment.
The initiative is welcome news in a region that like many areas of the highlands and islands of Scotland, has suffered high employment rates in recent years. Since 2007, over 3,500 people have signed on to Jobseekers allowance from Assynt alone, with over 120 signing on since January 2015, Tuminds said.
Rene Looper, founder of Tuminds Social Media said: “We are really excited about the opportunity to help people gain vital work skills in the Assynt region. The digital sector is only going to grow, and there will be increasing employment opportunities for people who develop the right skills in this area.
“Within the digital marketing spectrum, the use of social media in business is growing rapidly and is considered an increasingly important sales and marketing tool – giving people who are out of work a chance to develop these skills is a real privilege and we hope our course will open the door to employment for many of the participants.”
Founded in 2006 by Rene and Pamela Looper, Tuminds provides social media training, strategy and management to small and medium sized businesses and corporate organisations across the public and private sector in Scotland.