Youth recruitment day puts fair work at the center of North Ayrshire’s health equity push
More than 600 young people filled Auchenharvie Academy in Stevenston for a recruitment event designed to connect education with employment, training and practical advice for working life. The scale alone matters: when a local event draws this many attendees, it becomes more than a careers fair. It turns into a local workforce intervention, one built around the idea that access to good jobs can shape long-term health as much as schooling, housing or healthcare access.
Employers from construction, engineering, manufacturing, hospitality, administration, customer service, childcare and care services spoke directly with pupils and other young people attending the event. Around 30 partner organisations and employers were involved, creating a broad set of entry points into work and training. Alongside employer stalls, young people could get help with CV development, interview preparation and wider employability support — the kind of practical guidance that often determines whether a first job application moves forward or stalls before it begins.
The event was delivered by North Ayrshire Council’s Employability & Skills team in partnership with the school, the Department for Work and Pensions, local employers and community partners. That mix is important because labour market access rarely depends on a single agency. Young people often need coordinated support: someone to explain routes into training, someone else to clarify job requirements, and another partner to translate those opportunities into a realistic next step. By bringing those services into one place, the event reduced friction at a moment when many participants are making decisions about education, qualifications and work.
A recruitment day can look simple on paper. In practice, it acts on a stubborn public health problem.
Good Jobs as a social determinant, not a slogan
The event sat within North Ayrshire’s wider commitment to the Good Jobs workstream under the Collaboration for Health Equity in Scotland programme, known as CHES. CHES was launched in February 2025 to accelerate action aimed at reducing health inequities in North Ayrshire, Aberdeen City and South Lanarkshire. Led by Public Health Scotland and Professor Sir Michael Marmot’s Institute for Health Equity, the programme places employment alongside early years support and prevention as a lever for healthier lives.
That framing reflects a basic public health reality: employment quality influences income stability, stress exposure, access to routine and future prospects. Fair work can support mental wellbeing, while insecure or low-quality work can do the opposite. For adolescents and young adults, a first stable job or training pathway may also set the tone for years of skill-building, confidence and mobility. In areas where inequalities are already entrenched, those early pathways can either widen the gap or narrow it.
CHES work locally is being led by the North Ayrshire Integration Joint Board, which governs the North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership, and the Community Planning Partnership Board, which brings together the council, third sector groups and the NHS. That governance structure matters because the problems being addressed do not sit neatly inside one service. Employment, education, prevention and community support are linked, and the response has to be linked too.
Three workstreams, one local equity strategy
The CHES programme is organized around three principles: Good Start, Good Jobs and Good Health. In North Ayrshire, each workstream is rooted in a different local geography and set of priorities. Good Start focuses on giving every child the best start in life in the Fullarton, Castlepark and Bourtreehill areas of Irvine, with families, schools, nurseries and local groups working toward more joined-up support. Good Jobs targets fair employment, decent pay and skills development in Saltcoats Central, Ardrossan Central and Stevenston Hayocks, while also creating routes into secure jobs and training. Good Health aims to strengthen ill health prevention in the Garnock Valley, including affordable healthy food provision, better local wellbeing services and community-led solutions.
The recruitment event fits directly into that second strand. By exposing young people to employers and support agencies early, it tries to shift the employment trajectory before disadvantage calcifies into long-term exclusion. A teenager who understands how to build a CV, prepare for interview questions and navigate training routes is better equipped to enter the workforce with confidence. In public health terms, that is prevention at the level of life chances.
Direct employer contact gives young people something more concrete than aspiration
Young people attending the event were able to speak with employers across sectors that represent both immediate local opportunities and longer-term career routes. Construction and engineering offer technical paths; manufacturing can provide structured apprenticeships and progression; hospitality and customer service often serve as first entry points into paid work; childcare and care services link employment with community support; administration can lead into office-based careers and transferable skills.
The value of that mix is practical. Young people rarely need abstract encouragement. They need to see real jobs, real expectations and real steps to get there. A face-to-face conversation with an employer can clarify what a role involves, which qualifications matter and how an applicant can stand out. In a local labor market, those details can determine whether a young person chooses to stay in education, pursue a training place or apply for work immediately.
Councillor Jean McClung, the council’s Cabinet Member for Education and Young People, linked the event to future planning and fair employment, emphasizing the importance of helping young people gather information now so they can make informed decisions about work. Her comments place the event squarely inside a broader community strategy: supporting young people into fair, sustainable employment through strong partnerships rather than isolated initiatives.
Employment support becomes health policy when inequality is the target
The event’s significance extends beyond recruitment. It reflects a growing recognition that access to work is inseparable from health equity. Secure employment can reduce financial strain, improve self-esteem and expand access to social participation. For families and communities under pressure, those benefits can ripple outward. The reverse is also true: unemployment or unstable work can deepen stress and compound the very inequalities CHES was built to address.
North Ayrshire Council says wellbeing sits at the heart of local life and is central to a fairer future for the area. In this case, that statement is not rhetorical decoration. A youth recruitment event tied to a health equity programme shows how local government can use employment support as a prevention tool, not just a labour market service.
The unanswered question is how consistently those connections will translate into lasting outcomes for the young people who attended. Attendance figures are strong, employer participation is broad and the public health rationale is clear. What will matter next is whether the event converts interest into training, applications, interviews and jobs that are stable enough to influence health and income over time.