MCR Pathways is aiming to broaden the horizons of the young people it supports
Scotland’s groundbreaking youth mentoring programme has transformed the lives of thousands of care experienced young people.
Now MCR Pathways is undergoing its own critical transformation as its new CEO introduces skills training in an update to the scheme.
MCR Pathways, founded in Glasgow in 2007, now works across 24 Scottish local authorities and has expanded into England.
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Its premise is simple: pair a young person from a difficult background with a trusted, reliable adult role model.
The results are higher rates of attendance and attainment, and enhanced future prospects.
Sharon McIntyre, CEO of MCR Pathways, says that trusted relationship will remain at the heart of mentoring.
However, Ms McIntyre wants to move the scheme towards a model that includes practical skills development, career exploration and exposure to industry.
A survey of the young people involved in MCR Pathways shows they have increasing anxiety about the future and a feeling “the economy has no place for them”.
“If you've been in a place of hardship then you sit in an opportunity deficit,” she added.
“We want to build into the programme a belief that there’s not only a place for you post-school but there’s a thriving place for you.”
MCR Pathways was previously focused on supporting young people to avoid unemployment, prison and unsuccessful outcomes.
Now it is working more closely with Skills Development Scotland and Developing the Young Workforce to create a model that will help with employability.
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The mentoring scheme has also expanded into colleges to help young people going through the transition out of school and is looking at how it might begin in primary schools to catch pupils sooner.
As a first step, MCR Pathways is launching a partnership with Spark Design Academy, which offers online accredited creative training courses in football kit and footwear design.
CEO Craig Buglass designed the 2002 World Cup-winning Brazil kit and has previously worked for Nike, Puma and Belstaff.
The new approach will see mentors and their young people work through online courses together, using subjects such as football-kit design as a starting point for exploring skills, career options and routes into employment.
Mr Buglass said teaching young people to design football kits could also develop skills in mathematics, research, presentation and business.
“It's not just the designer,” he said, “There’s thousands of jobs that go around it.”
Craig, who has worked in the industry for 35 years, said he had never fully understood the breadth of fashion design when he was growing up.
He also has dyslexia, which he says went unrecognised during his education.
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The experience made him determined to help young people who might not follow a straightforward route into work.
With career paths constantly evolving and, he said it is vital to teach young people to “command a room” and have the confidence to pitch for work.
There are currently around 6,000 MCR Pathways mentors in Scotland with the charity constantly on the lookout for more volunteers.
Suzanne became a mentor after hearing about MCR Pathways through her job in local government.
“It just touched a nerve,” she said. “Because it gave me a bit of self-reflection into my own time at high school.
“Certain things happened, and I maybe took paths that weren’t always right so I think it would have made quite a difference personally in my own life.”
For Eva, involvement in the mentoring scheme came as a recommendation from her guidance teacher.
She said she was “going through some things” in her life and “he was trying to help me get back on two feet and find a path to start back up on”.
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Both Suzanne and Eva said they were nervous ahead of their first meeting - especially as Eva was only in S3 at the time.
“I was aware I was going to be a stranger to her,” Suzanne said.
“I’m going to sugarcoat it,” Eva added, “I was the most stubborn, moodiest person because I always talked back to people and the idea of a stranger coming in to my life … I was really, really annoyed at the situation.”
They quickly bonded, however, when a shared passion for The Vampire Diaries emerged.
After a few initial weekly sessions Eva felt “a comfort feeling” like she could “relax my shoulders a bit” and open up.
“It just kind of felt like an extra pair of like listening ears that I didn't have to carry all the stress and workload on my own,” she added.
Suzanne has helped with boosting Eva’s confidence, given her guidance on careers options and being a consistent, trusted adult for her.
Eva is now in S6 and studying for a suit of Highers and Advanced Highers while also doing a college course in legal studies.
Her dream after school is to go on and study law to ultimately be a procurator fiscal.
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She’s nervous about going out into the world without her teachers supporting her but Suzanne and she plan to keep in touch.
Suzanne is confident Eva’s future will be bright. “She’s so strong and resilient, my goodness,” she said.
An independent evaluation by Ipsos Scotland found MCR Pathways was associated with an estimated 28,850 additional days of school attendance among Care Experienced pupils in S5 between 2014/15 and 2021/22.
The evaluation estimated a nine percentage-point reduction in the proportion of Care Experienced pupils experiencing school exclusion - or around one-third of the gap in exclusion rates between care-experienced and non-care-experienced pupils.
Now Ms McIntyre is determined to build on the mentoring programme to give more structure to helping young people into future destinations.
“What we’re hoping to do is broaden the horizons of young people through this exchange,” she said.
“Social media algorithms narrow their horizons and we want to broaden that back out and show them the colour and richness of the opportunities the world offers.”