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Gary Burns – a young person in the 80s

‘Those three days were my bridge to adult life.’

Not enjoying school – a young Glaswegian with a passion for football couldn’t see life past the confines of the city boundary.

But a when a Young Scot pack landed on his school desk Gary Burns saw a glimpse of a wider world and the opportunities it brought to connect with other young people.

It was 1988 and the 17-year-old’s interest in football led him to enter a competition he spotted in the Young Scot Magazine. He landed a place with 40 other young people on a camp at the national football training centre in Largs with former Scotland football stars Andy Roxburgh, Craig Brown and Ross Mathie.

“I can still remember opening the envelope – a weekend coaching with the Scotland manager, assistant manager and head coach! Scotland were a team to be reckoned with in the 1980s. We expected to get to World Cups.

“On the first day manager Andy Roxburgh, assistant Craig Brown and head coach Ross Mathie brought us together. I remember one of the group – Carolann, who became a good friend – broke the ice and we were up and running. By the time the weekend was over Carolann was doing handstand competitions with Craig Brown and the group were bonded as if we’d known each other since primary one. It was an amazing opportunity - intimidating too. I’d never been away from home on my own before.”

“Young Scot was ahead of their time, bringing young male and female football fans to train together at Largs. It was great to share their enthusiasm for the game and to see new friendships form. To hear that some of them remain friends to this day just demonstrates the great value of sport,” said Craig Brown.

The three-day camp not only led to a life-long connection with football but a passion to promote the life-changing opportunities Young Scot helped to facilitate. Supported by Young Scot youth workers, the weekend session gave Gary the confidence to see what the world had to offer. 

“We were treated as adults which was such a change from school. There was a wide age range of 16 to 25-year-olds - but we all got on. We spent 24 hours a day, every day, together. We weren’t all talented footballers but that didn’t matter – it wasn’t the point. It was more about what we learned about ourselves.

“After my Largs weekend I felt much more confident about making my own decisions. I was at a bit of crossroads at that time. I did love my football but other than high hopes in that direction, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I was probably lacking in confidence and felt my horizons were a bit limited.”

But his experience at the training camp was pivotal, giving him self-confidence to explore his potential. As well as going on to play at the nursery of football talent Possil YM, which has fostered football legends such as Kenny Dalgleish, he applied for college.

“Two years after the training camp, in 1990, I saved up to go to the World Cup in Italy but no-one else I knew was able to go. So, I went myself. It was a brilliant experience but I don’t think I’d have been confident enough to do that had it not been for the opportunity through Young Scot - it was my bridge to adult life.’ 

“I might be just a bit older, but I still consider myself a Young Scot.”

Why we needed Young Scot

The 80’s in Scotland

In the late 1970s there was recognition throughout Europe that young people were facing new challenges in finding opportunities after leaving school. Growing levels of youth unemployment and changes in family and working life meant that by the early 80s, only one in every two school leavers found a job and thousands of young people had no real prospect of future employment. Something needed to change and in 1979 the then Scottish Community Education Centre, Young Scot founder and former CEO Marc Liddle and others worked with a group of young people to find out what could be done.

They identified the difficulties that young people had in finding the information they needed about opportunities both in Scotland and further afield. Young Scot was part of the proposed solution, together with a network of local youth information points (Youth Enquiry Services) and the development of Social Education Kits for schools to use with senior pupils.

For Young Scot, the 1980s were pioneering years full of exploration, experiment and excitement. It was during this time that we fostered the first principle of Young Scot - to listen carefully to others, and principally, to what young people were saying.

And while this overview of the past is characterised by change – by a constant requirement to embrace whatever challenge or opportunity was coming over the horizon – we have stayed true to our core principles and priorities. We remain committed to linking information with opportunity, placing young people at the centre of what we do, and working innovatively with partners in Scotland and beyond.

The birth of Young Scot

Progress at pace - highlights of the first decade

In September 1981 the debut Young Scot Information Handbook was launched and distributed free to 100,000 school leavers, rapidly followed by a second print run in response to the huge demand.

“The first booklet was a real breakthrough. It established core principles and by involving young people in the content and design and then listening to feedback when the booklets were out, we set up a way of working that endured, with improvements along the way, for forty years. Universality was a watchword from day one. Every young person was part of our plans – no stigma and no one left out.” Marc Liddle, Young Scot

Work on the handbook had started in 1978 and was developed by the Youth Enquiry Service for Scotland (YES) - a service born in response to concerns raised by young people that they were unaware of the services, facilities and opportunities available to them.

YES worked to encourage local authorities and the voluntary youth work sector across Scotland to include youth information services as part of their youth work strategies. Soon more than 150 youth information points, run by young people for young people, popped up across Scotland. Some were dedicated noticeboards inside schools and youth clubs, others were YES shops and cafes on the high street. Young Scot and YES were were proving that information empowers young people, unleashing creativity and bringing aspirations closer.

By 1982, with funding from Urban Aid, the Strathclyde YES Resource Unit was established in Glasgow. Under the leadership of youth worker Max Cruikshank the unit aimed to answer any question on any topic within 24 hours. Over fourteen years, at least 50,000 enquiries were answered and the young volunteers succeeded in creating a unique information data bank recording the questions and thousands of answers provided. It also became a comprehensive database of every organisation available to help young people. The YES Resource Unit and the national unit went on to support the creation of over a hundred youth information cafes run by young people for young people.

Between the YES Resource Units and the Young Scot handbook, young people now had access to unprecedented levels of information.

A game changer - the Young Scot Card

Opportunities through discounts

In the mid-80s, the Scottish Arts Council (now Creative Scotland) wanted to encourage more young people to actively participate in the arts. They launched several new initiatives to provide young people with information about the arts and encourage their participation. The ‘Young Scot Arts Book’ was published between 1984 and 1986 and was offered free of charge to any young person who returned the requested coupon that appeared inside the Young Scot School Leavers Handbook. The Young Scot ‘Arts’ Card launched in 1985 with discounted entry to galleries, theatres, concerts and cinemas. This was the prototype of the Young Scot Card.

By 1987, the Young Scot card had developed into a pass for more than the arts - it was the gateway to over 2000 outlets in Scotland and a further 200,000 across Europe. It was now available at Post Offices across Scotland and uptake was prompted by a national TV and press campaign.

The Young Scot package now included a handbook, the Young Scot Card a quarterly magazine and a free 24 Hour Legal Advice Helpline. To mark the launch of the comprehensive offering, national partners and discounters joined together to celebrate at the then Donaldson’s School for the Deaf in Edinburgh. Guests included the Scottish Development Agency, Kwik-Fit, General Accident, Scottish Citylink Coaches, Topman, British School of Motoring, Pizza Hut, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and McDonalds.

Alongside the discounts Young Scot was also able to offer unique opportunities such the football training camp that set 1980s young person Gary Burns on his path. This was the first special event organised by Young Scot to bring cardholders together and its success demonstrated the benefits of organised events to bring new opportunities to young people. In March 1988, young people were on the move again. This time zipping down the slopes at Glenshee on the first Young Scot Half-Price Ski Day. And later that same month, ScotRail offered Young Scot cardholders the opportunity to go and ‘Explore Scotland’ with a special half-price weekend offer. Restaurants, cinemas, theatres and other local attractions also signed up to encourage young people to have a good day out.

Expanding opportunities across Europe

International Youth Year sparks new horizons

Young Scot was part of the global movement that recognised that far from being a ‘problem’ young people were the future. That by creating opportunities and giving them the resources and support that they needed, young people could flourish.

"Youth constitutes a global resource of the first magnitude. They have available a wealth of knowledge which, if wisely applied, can create a world of unprecedented well-being. I hope that this will be their commitment in this specially designated Year,” said United Nations Secretary General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar in 1985 after signing the proclamation denoting 1985 as the International Youth Year (IYY).

To mark the year, the Scottish Community Education Council ran a national campaign for volunteers and an IYY National Committee of young people was appointed to plan and promote what became a hugely successful year of events. This was an early example of ‘co-design’ before the term was invented.

As a result of IYY, representatives from Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands created and signed the ‘Lisbon Protocol’ in June 1987. This established the principle of reciprocity of discounts to young people across Europe. The principle was to make young people more mobile both socially and geographically. An international protocol directly evolved for and by young people. All the participating countries brought a delegation of 12 young people to the event marking the signing of the protocol. This would be the first of many youth-led events to involve and consult with young people on the future developments of the youth card.

“A youth card for all Europeans under the age of 26 was a great challenge. Also, a very new idea in terms of mobility and access to cultural goods and events. We succeeded and now more than 6 million young Europeans in 30 countries enjoy this new identity. It was also great friendship story.” Stéphan Delaux, former Deputy Mayor of Bordeaux and President of the Bordeaux Tourism Office.

How the card developed

Working together

This was the beginning of one of Young Scot’s most enduring partnerships. The Scottish Community Education Council (and its successor Community Learning Scotland) was instrumental in setting up Young Scot, and building the European Youth Card Association (EYCA).

The catalyst for the inception of a European Youth Card Association (EYCA) was the International Youth Year. As part of the year, the French Ministry of Youth and Sport organised a European Colloquium of Youth Information Centres, in Paris. The event identified the youth card as a key tool in developing services for young people and European nations began to introduce their own cards. It became clear that combining strengths and co-operating with each other would bring enormous benefits to young people.

In 1986, delegates from the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, France and Scotland met in Edinburgh and agreed that total reciprocity of all discounts would strengthen the offering of their youth cards. This idea was solidified in the Lisbon Protocol the following year.

EYCA has continued to grow, and is now a well established non-governmental, not-for-profit association of 38 member organisations that issue the European Youth Card to over six million young people in 36 countries across Europe. EYCA has gone from strength to strength – and the presidency has been held by both previous Young Scot CEOs - Marc Liddle and Louise Macdonald.

“Good ideas are best shared, innovation flows from evenings of food and drink and endless talk. There has always been plenty serious collaborative work too, of course. But the mutual support of the Association has been vital in developing youth information services and the outcome, an unbroken network of discounts right across Europe, has supported travel and international connections among the young people of Europe for nearly four decades.” Louise Macdonald, former President of EYCA.

Promoting health

Partnerships have underscored, indeed, powered Young Scot’s work at home as well as internationally. One area of long-standing partnership is health – an issue that is consistently at the top of young people’s concerns. This key relationship began with the Scottish Health Education Group (SHEG), then the Health Education Board for Scotland (HEBS), NHS Health Scotland and more recently Public Health Scotland. The messages and information delivered to young people have always focused on encouraging them to lead a healthy and active lifestyle without finger-wagging.

“This partnership has been long and fruitful. Young Scot’s core principles - equipping young people not just with information but the skills and perspectives to assess its value and trusting them to make decisions without lectures – shaped health policy for young people for years. As well as providing information directly to young people, Young Scot worked with the national health agencies to develop training and resources which supported workers in the field and helped young people work through much broader issues around relationships, sexuality and substances.” Martin Raymond, then senior educationalist at SHEG, later Chair of Young Scot 1999-2003 and part of the board.

Another partnership was formed in 1989 when the actor Gerrard Kelly joined Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Chair Bob Maiden, to launch Young Scot Local Enterprise Companies in schools.

With the support of the Scottish Community Education Council, community education staff and staff from their local branch of Royal Bank of Scotland, school students began to set up and run their own Young Scot companies. As well as giving experience of running a business, and working as part of a team, the project also helped to develop Young Scot – as each company increased local awareness, recruited more discounters and sold more Young Scot Cards. Very soon there were 17 local Young Scot companies operating across Scotland.

“Some in RBS weren’t sure it was the right profile for the bank and some of the community education and local government stakeholders thought that it was the equivalent of selling Young Scot’s soul to Lucifer. We made our case and the RBS Board decided that they wanted to invest £40,000. There’s no doubt that the connection helped RBS build relationships with young customers.” John Evans, Royal Bank of Scotland.

These are a few key examples selected from hundreds of projects from the first decade of Young Scot. They laid the foundations of the way we work now and will continue to work as we face all the opportunities and challenges of the future.