CASE STUDY Partnership helps Phil from Dunfermline’s new digital direction
Phil Fowler, pictured below, had been working for student accommodation company Unite Students for 12 years when he was made redundant.
The 41-year-old father of three, who lives in Dunfermline, realised that redundancy was inevitable as the company suffered during the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Phil recalls: “The company went through a restructure and I realised then that my job was under threat. I was told in March 2022 that I was being made redundant. That’s when I started looking for support.
“I knew I wanted to move on and change career, and the redundancy gave me that opportunity. I was interested in the tech side of my job and felt that this was something I wanted to pursue a career in.”
Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) is the Scottish Government’s initiative for dealing with redundancy situations. Skills Development Scotland (SDS) leads on the delivery of PACE support in conjunction with a number of partners including Department for Work and Pensions, Citizens Advice and learning providers.
Phil says: “I searched online for different opportunities and found redundancy support available from Skills Development Scotland as part of PACE.
Phil received support from PACE adviser Anupama Rao, and says: “I spoke to Anupama about my situation and that I was keen to move into the digital sector. She spoke to me about making informed choices, told me about websites that have information about training – including [SDS website] My World of Work – and spoke about funding options.
“She suggested that I look at job adverts in that sector to see what was in demand and what employers were looking for, which would give me an idea of what training options I should consider.”
Phil researched relevant jobs and courses in the digital sector, while continuing to speak to Anupama about his progress.
After a few weeks of applying for jobs, the responses and job interviews started to come in. Phil says: “All the work I had done on my CV had paid off. It got to a point where I was turning down opportunities as I had quite a few coming in.”
Phil was successful in securing a technical support analyst role with Currencycloud, a global payments platform owned by Visa. He says: “I’ve been doing the job for six months and I love it. The help I had definitely helped me achieve what I wanted following redundancy. I would 100 per cent recommend the support from SDS and PACE.”