Over the course of the last few blogs, I have detailed different aspects of life on Uist and in a couple of them, we have touched on learning opportunities in Gaelic from children to adults. My aim with this piece is to connect the dots and show the wealth of opportunities available in Uist from nursery to post-graduate via distance learning to apprenticeships and support for young people looking to get into the world of work and everything in between. I hope you find this to be a helpful starting point!

For children, there is education provision in Uist from nursery to secondary school. If you have wee ones who are at nursery age you should look at the Comhairle’s Early Years section, there is a section on the website which details all of the contact details and the information you need to begin the process of enrolling your child. You may notice that all of the nurseries in Uist provide Gaelic medium provision, so rest assured that your wee ones will get an excellent grounding in the language outside of the home before heading off to P1! Otter Mountain (formerly known as Wild Things Uist) is an outdoor nursery which provides excellent learning and exploring opportunities for young children throughout the islands, check out our story with Emily here about Otter Mountain’s journey.

In Uist and Benbecula there is 1 Secondary School (Sgoil Lionacleit) and 4 Primary Schools (Sgoil Uibhist a Tuath, Sgoil Baile a’ Mhanaich, Sgoil an Ìochdair, Sgoil Dhalabroig all with nurseries) as well as a community based nursery Cothrom Òg. You can find links to their websites at the foot of this blog post to find out more about enrolment and the schools in general.

In addition to the curriculum you would expect, Sgoil Lionacleit offers courses in Boat Building, Maritime Skills and Crofting which provide an amazing opportunity for young people to get a solid grounding in areas that have particular importance to Uist. Writing as someone who left Sgoil Lionacleit before these courses were established (not going to reveal when but let’s just say I have Standard Grades, not Nat 5s!) I would have loved the opportunity to learn practical crofting skills at school. The Boat Building course ensures that traditional skills stay alive in Uist and that the practice of boat building carries on, it is also an amazing hands-on opportunity to put numeracy and technical skills into practice demonstrating to young people how what they learn in the classroom has tangible real-world applications which result in something beautiful and useful. The provision of Maritime Skills reflects the proportion of pupils who go onto apprenticeships in the local maritime industries (Cal Mac or fishing) or who go on to college with a view to joining the Merchant Navy. The educational provision reflects the needs of the local economy and ensures that traditional skills are not only passed on but are strengthened. Foundation Apprenticeships provide pupils with an opportunity to build skills in various industries – from business skills to creative industries; to engineering and childcare and social services- this gives pupils a solid taste of whatever industry they may want to enter after school and allows them to develop skills that will make the transition to industry that much easier. For more information, see Sgoil Lionacleit’s website section on Foundation Apprenticeships.

Developing the Young Workforce works with schools to provide essential skills in enterprise and also to connect young people with relevant work placements and apprenticeships. Not every young person will want or need to go to University or College after leaving school and it is important that they have access to on-the-job training and high-quality work placements in the community.

Beyond school, organisations like Cothrom offer Adult Learning opportunities for people of all abilities to provide training ranging from support with literacy, numeracy and IT skills to support employability or to help with life skills. Cothrom’s website provides a comprehensive overview of the amazing range of areas they provide learning opportunities in. Cothrom’s ReStore project support adult learners in a more hands-on setting where they learn new skills while upcycling pre-loved furniture. Visit their page here to find out details from workshops they offer to details around picking up your old furniture so that they can give it a new lease of life! Organisations like Cothrom are vitally important in empowering adults in the community who may need more support in getting into the world of work and breaking down barriers to access opportunities.
In terms of University education in Uist, there are opportunities to work towards degrees through the UHI in subjects such as Fine Art, Music, Archeology, and PGDE Secondary and Primary education. These subjects are taught at physical sites in North Uist, Benbecula and South Uist but it is also possible to do them via distance learning. I would advise you to check the UHI website to see which degrees, diplomas and short courses, you can do via distance learning – it might surprise you how many are available. Due to the nature of the UHI, it is also possible to also embark on postgraduate degrees via distance learning from Masters degrees to PhD. The options are endless!

Outside of formal education, there are many opportunities throughout the year to learn skills via workshops in the community. Many of these are in arts and crafts, keep an eye out for classes that cover everything from crofting to traditional skills like creel making and Eriskay Gansey knitting! Your best bet is to keep an eye on our social media where we post information about what’s happening every day.

This is a very brief look at education and training opportunities available in Uist, and I am sure that I have missed a few out! In future pieces, I will look at the different aspects in greater depth but I hope that this has been a helpful introduction. Below I will provide links to useful pages.

Schools

Sgoil Baile a’ Mhanaich: http://www.balivanichschool.co.uk/
Sgoil Uibhist a Tuath: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/es/suat/
Sgoil an Ìochdair: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/es/sgoilaniochdaireileansiar/
Sgoil Dhalabroig: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/es/sgoildhalabroig/?fbclid=IwAR2GX1d2-zOB9_bnfxQaDJ39-8X6pyuUhhwgDTNy4qdzkAI2axem-_ZTvOs
Sgoil Lionacleit: http://www.sgoillionacleit.org.uk/

Further Education and Community Education

Developing the Young Workforce OH: https://www.dywouterhebrides.com/
Cothrom: https://www.cothrom.net/
UHI: https://www.outerhebrides.uhi.ac.uk/
Taigh Chearsabhagh: https://www.taigh-chearsabhagh.org/
Ceòlas: https://www.ceolas.co.uk/
Ceann na h-Àirigh & Grimsay Boat Museum: https://www.grimsay.org
Claddach Kirkibost Center: http://www.claddach-kirkibost.org/