Officials from the Electoral Registration Team for Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling have been helping students and staff with advice and support at all three of Forth Valley College’s campuses recently.
As well as hosting stalls, they have visited five classes – including full-time English For Speakers of other Languages (ESOL) classes - and provided materials and presentations, which staff delivered to a further five classes. In total about 93 students have benefited, most of whom didn’t realise they were eligible to vote.
Louise Burgoyne from the Electoral Registration Team explained: “It only takes five minutes to register online, but the deadline is midnight on Monday 20 April. People aged 16 years and over are eligible to vote in the Scottish Elections on Thursday 7May, but if they are not on the register, they can’t vote. Most people don’t realise that anyone resident in Scotland is eligible to register, regardless of their nationality.”
FVC Lecturer Duncan Carmichael added, “It was fantastic having Louise and her colleagues deliver workshops and provide information to over 90 learners. They explained how easy it was to register and highlighted other benefits of being on the register, like improved credit ratings when getting a phone contract or loan! Many of my students will be first time voters and so they learned about the different types of elections and what to do on election day.
“Our ESOL for Employability course has found it really useful finding out about the election process and understanding the different parliaments and their voting criteria. It has encouraged them to find out more about the Scottish Parliament and hopefully we will visit it after the election is over.”
The photo shows Susan Stewart and Louise Burgoyne from the Electoral Registration Team.
For more information and to register, call the Electoral Registration Team on 01786 892289 or visit: www.centralscotland-vjb.gov.uk/scottishparliamentaryelections/
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