“Something clicked – I just thought – I absolutely love this. I can’t describe it, but I thought – that was amazing. And I started telling all my friends, using it with my parents [clients].” Participant on the Mindset in Parental Employability programme, South Lanarkshire
The recent evaluation of Winning Scotland’s Mindset in Youth Employability and Mindset in Parental Employability programmes – read the full report here – gave a resounding yes to this question.
Improvements in confidence, resilience and wellbeing were reported by the employability professionals that took part – and for the young people, parents, and carers that they support.
Teams reported that the programmes changed their emotions, practice, ability to support their clients – particularly those with the most acute needs – and how they worked with them and together. Through application of their learning, they reflected on the different tools, techniques, and beliefs they practiced and how these changed organisational processes, relationships, and the culture across their teams.
An Executive Summary gives an overview of the impact of the programmes and what we learned from the evaluation (see key statistics). It is the full evaluation report, however, that provides rich insights on how embodied learning about growth mindset really impacted the people who took part and the people they support. We invite you to read the full report to find out more.
Growth mindset is based on years of research from Stanford Professor Dr Carol Dweck. At its core, it is the belief that everyone has the potential to improve their abilities and personal characteristics and that how we learn, grow and achieve is influenced by the approach we take to core aspects of that, such as, viewing mistakes and setbacks as essential for learning and valuing feedback. By applying a growth mindset approach to employability work, we change how we see others and how they see themselves, supporting them to progress.
Winning Scotland has refined its growth mindset programmes over decades of working with the adults that influence the environments and settings around our young people, to build their confidence, resilience, and wellbeing.
We were delighted to work with 80 professionals across three local authorities on these most recent employability programmes, and will be taking inspiration from their dedication and the lessons learned from the Upstream evaluation, to double down on our efforts to support more children and young people across Scotland to thrive. Sincere thanks to everyone involved, our delivery partners, the wonderful programme participants, and to our funders.
If you would like to find out more about our programmes and/or how we could support your work, please get in touch with sharon@winningscotland.org or aoife@winningscotland.org. Thank you.