Author and Chief Executive of the Centre for Confidence and Well-being, Carol Craig, will be addressing delegates at our forthcoming conference on the topic of confidence. She will be delivering a keynote speech about her ideas on fostering the confidence, wellbeing and resilience of young people.
Confidence is a word we frequently use in everyday language yet rarely do we stop and think about what it means. With the Early Learning and Childcare sector changing in Scotland, are you confident you have the right skills, knowledge and understanding to provide high quality childcare?
Talking about the subject of confidence and her forthcoming appearance at the SCMA Conference, Carol said: “In Scotland we need our young people to be optimistic, enthusiastic and able to achieve.
“Childminders have a major role to play in creating these confident and resilient young people. They also require confidence in their own ability to provide quality, professional childcare that creates the right conditions for children to flourish. Like other professionals, childminders need to be able to try new things, relish challenges, risk making mistakes, ask for help and not be side-tracked by fear or failure. These are hard ‘asks’, so there is a need to create conditions to enable success and for confidence to rise and I will be speaking more about this at the conference.
“I understand that the theme for the SCMA Conference 2018 is Reach for the Stars which is so inspirational. I’m really looking forward to attending on the day as the subject of confidence fits so well into this theme and I’m sure it will stimulate a great debate.”
Carol founded the Centre for Confidence and Well-being in 2005 and remains its driving force, constantly seeking new and innovative ideas to ensure that it maintains its unique and successful role as a leading organisation in the development of confidence and wellbeing.
She has now written five books. The second, entitled Creating Confidence: a handbook for professionals working with young people, generated a great deal of interest, and her most recent publication is Hiding in Plain Sight: Exploring Scotland’s Ill Health, in which she argues that bringing up children has, historically, been Scotland’s Achilles’ heel.
“Changes are happening on a national level within the childcare sector and addressing these with confidence and professionalism is important,” said Maggie Simpson, SCMA Chief Executive.
“Carol has a wealth of knowledge regarding confidence, resilience and wellbeing, especially in relation to professionals working with young people, and I’m sure that our delegates will enjoy her keynote speech.”
More about Carol Craig
Carol’s academic background is political science. She then became involved in training, personal and team development, running courses for more than 15 years, many of which were in schools.
During this time Carol became interested in psychology, and since setting up the Centre for Confidence and Well-being in 2005 she has read and written widely on the topic. The Centre has a book series called ‘Postcards from Scotland’ and Carol is the series editor. To date they have published fourteen books. The latest is Right from the Start: Investing in Parents and Babies by Alan Sinclair.
She received her PhD in politics from the University of Edinburgh and has also been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Abertay. Carol lives in Stirlingshire and has three grandsons under three.