What Working Rite stands for

The aim of Working Rite is to promote a proven and successful work-based mentoring formula that supports teenagers achieve maturity and readiness for work.

The inspiration for Working Rite came out of a recognition of the growing crisis amongst teenage males. We wanted to find a natural way to give teenage boys a real life challenge with elders from their own community. The focus is on the workplace - primarily the building trades - and is set up to appeal to those youngsters who have rejected the education system and are at risk of entering a life of insecure employment, crime or benefits.

The Working Rite method uses the experience of a teenager's relationship with their first boss as a rite of passage into the world of work and adulthood. Working Rite believes that a first job can be a significant maturing event and the teenager's relationship with his/her first job is usually a crucial one.

Working Rite is open to both boys and girls. It strives to make same-gender job-matches (placing boys with a male boss and girls with a female boss) to create a significant influence by someone outside the family, yet still of one's own gender, at that vital time in the young person's life.

Working Rite also aims to promote rites of passage projects in general, and to promote mentoring and initiation for teenagers as a support into adulthood.

Principles guiding Working Rite work-based mentoring projects

Working Rite works because it goes with the flow of what is, and in doing so draws out the natural role model potential of ordinary tradesmen with young lads thirsty to grow up. In many respects Working Rite is an old fashioned idea but one that has been adapted to use the principles of mentoring in the development stages of late teenage years.

Working Rite is also based on the premise that one of the key barriers in the way of many of these young people achieving work is not necessarily their skills or qualifications; it is their maturity. At the heart of Working Rite, is a 'rite of passage' formula - take the youngsters away from their peers, put them through a challenge, and bring them back to their community and family changed - no longer children but young adults.

There is a deliberate gender element in the approach. The maturing process (or lack of it) for many teenage boys these days is a problem. In late teenage years certain lessons can only be understood from being in the company of older versions of your own gender. All this is not made explicit in the workings of each project but it is an important part of the Working Rite formula.

Working Rite is not opposed to redressing the gender imbalance in the construction trades, but this is not its prime purpose. All the projects are open to girls and they have all been pro-active and sourced local tradeswomen in preparation for girls coming forward.

Fundamentally we believe that the principles of a rite of passage that takes youngsters away from their peers and into the world of adults is as important for girls as boys. Working Rite is already expanding the model into industries that naturally attract more girls and women.

Where Working Rite came from

Working Rite is a social enterprise. It constituted as non-profit distributing company using the Community Interest Company (CIC) model in June 2008. Working Rite began with two founding directors - Sandy Campbell and Allan Nicol. Working Rite CIC, as it is now known, has expanded, with three part time employees and a new board member. However, the development of Working Rite goes back to the beginning of the millennium.

In 2001 Sandy Campbell, then a self-employed community regeneration consultant, began developing the concept of the 'Leith Mentoring Project'. Sandy canvassed for support in the local area for the idea, the aim being to find mentoring opportunities, matching teenage boys with local tradesmen by taking on local construction projects. In February 2003 Sandy worked with Port of Leith Housing Association to help them develop their wider role in the community. Sandy introduced the concept of the Leith Mentoring Project to Port of Leith and secured funding that enabled the project to go ahead.

The Project (known as TOIL – Training Opportunities in Leith) was launched in February 2004 with Allan Nicol as the Project Co-ordinator. Allan brought with him his experience as a former training instructor and self-employed builder. He had gone from the trades into training and discovered that the classroom didn't work - and it wasn't what the tradesmen wanted either. Allan introduced key additional elements shaping the project to really meet the needs of local tradesmen; in effect turning the model into a viable business model.

In 2005 Sandy started to market the model under the banner name of 'Working Rite' in order to reach more youngsters by expanding into other areas. The Govan project (YETS) was established in January 2006 and the Perth project (Toolkit) was launched 6 months later.
Interest in the method was beginning to grow. The Herald published a full page article on the method in January 2007 and following this Sandy secured the interest of the SNP in the run up to the Scottish Parliamentary elections of that year. Working Rite was written into the manifesto and following the SNP's election success, ministers and civil servants have been in discussions with Working Rite CIC to explore how the expansion of the model can be supported.

Meanwhile interest in the model was growing across the border. In the summer of 2007 the first English project was launched in Sheffield under the name Working Rite Sheffield. Sunderland and Newcastle followed in the winter of 2007/08. Translating the method from Scottish to English funding and training regimes has presented new challenges but also exciting opportunities. Working Rite fills a yawning gap in the market in England; dominated as it is by the vocational qualification classroom approach.

Early in 2008 Allan left the TOIL project to help with the roll out of the method. Working Rite CIC soon became established as a social enterprise and investment was secured from 2 venture philanthropy funds - the Wood Family Trust and the Laidlaw Youth Trust. In April Working Rite CIC opened their new offices in the home of the idea - Leith. In 2009, Working Rite sought advice on developing a more sustainable financial model for the organisation. The Young Foundation’s Learning Launchpad's were and are working closely in helping to create a revenue model which reflects the value of the scheme, and investment to compliment the management team. Said Sandy "the help from Learning Launchpad has given us the confidence, support and practical knowledge to scale up on the basis of good solid financial considerations - as well as some well targeted finance. They haven't been shy about challenging our assumptions when necessary but were always focused on finding pragmatic solutions based around an understanding of our business capacity."

The Centre for Social Justice recognised the success and potential of Working Rite by granting them their 2009 Award for Social Enterprise, saying that the oranisation was an “excellent example of the third sector’s capabilities: providing innovative solutions to problems that have long defeated the State”. Politicians continue to endorse Working Rite, with Baron Freud announcing at the 2009 Conservative Party Conference that "Inspired by the successful Working Rite model, we will match up 100,000 young people with sole traders for a 6 months work experience. Your first boss - one of the most influential people in so many of our lives. We are calling on sole traders to seize this opportunity. We will strip away the bureaucracy and let them teach the youngsters. It's a win for them; a win for the teenager, and a win for society."