Age: 22

From: Rosyth, Fife

Placement: Young Scot

“Young Scot gave me the opportunity to improve my skills and eventually get a career in the digital sector, with the chance to keep improve my skills in a vibrant organisation.”

Kyle became a ProjectScotland volunteer in June 2008 after struggling to find employment after graduating from university with a degree in multimedia development. Kyle’s placement was at Young Scot in Edinburgh as a Web Editor for 5 months where he helped to research and maintains the content on the Young Scot website. Through Kyle’s knowledge of multimedia he was able to assist Young Scot in maintaining its online presence by creating and editing graphics, editing the website and also helping to produce video presentations.

Kyle’s ProjectScotland placement helped him to gain the experience he needed as Young Scot afforded him the opportunity to work in many aspects of their media department.  He also gained experience of working in an office environment and was extremely proud of completing a video project for the Scottish Government that received praise.

Kyle really enjoyed his placement in the lively Young Scot office.  His line manager was able to offer lots of support, encouragement and advice and still managed to make the placement fun.  The office atmosphere was laid back, but Kyle still managed to get through a whole lot of work.

Towards the end of Kyle’s placement, a job opportunity came up in the Digital Department at Young Scot.  Kyle was interviewed for the position of Digital Development Assistant and impressed the panel no end!  In November 2008 he was offered the job and is really pleased that he can continue working with Young Scot – this time as an employee.

“I had no luck getting jobs because I lacked the necessary work experience for my ideal career. Volunteering with ProjectScotland was a way to gain the experience I needed.  ProjectScotland was able to place me with an organisation that had exactly the kind of opportunities I was looking for.”