Project: Youth Enhanced Support (YES)

YES was one of the first projects in the South West to target underachieving 14 to 16 year olds who are likely to become NEET either through non-attendance, exclusion or criminality, or because they fall in vulnerable groups such as young carers, care leavers, teenage parents, young offenders and BME (Black Minority Ethnic) communities. The project is piloting an accredited and a non-accredited route back to education, and plans to roll out both beyond the end of the programme to help older individuals in similar circumstances.

Project feature

STABILITY IN SCHOOLS – BUILDING AN EFFECTIVE PLATFORM

Prospect Services is the lead partner in the Youth Enhanced Support (YES) project. The project is run by Connexions and co-financed by ESF (European Social Fund) and the Skills Funding Agency.

YES was one of the first projects in the South West to target underachieving 14 to 16 year olds who are likely to become NEET. The project identified a number of groups in Gloucestershire who were not achieving their potential either through non-attendance or exclusion from school, criminality, or because they fall in vulnerable groups such as young carers, care leavers, teenage parents, young offenders and BME (Black Minority Ethnic) communities. YES began in July 2008 and pilots an accredited and a non-accredited route back to education. The project plans to roll out both approaches to older groups beyond the end of the programme.

Shut Up, Move On (SUMO) is the project's non-accredited approach. SUMO has been devised and developed by Paul McGee [Link name to www.thesumoguy.com] as a motivational toolkit to bring success in life through change. It focuses on employability and personal challenges to overcome potential barriers to employment. The project has also set up a Job Club scheme at schools in Gloucester, Cheltenham and the Forest of Dean. Job Club provides the accredited route and offers an OCR (Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations) certificate in Job Seeking Skills.

The results have been impressive. YES is on course to recruit its full complement of 120 ‘beneficiaries’ by the end of the summer term and meet all its contracted outcomes by the end of September. While the project initiates the partnership with the school, it is generally the school that refers individuals to the programme. Referrals come from a variety of sources, including the school SENCO (special educational needs coordinator), student support centres, and even heads of rear. Potential referrals are also identified by Connexions' personal advisers, who are involved with running the programme at the school. The project has seen positive feedback from both beneficiaries and participating schools. Beneficiaries say the programme has helped improve confidence and self-belief. Schools point to the positive impact the project is having not only on individuals but also on the school itself, with improved attendance, behavior, attitude and effort as beneficiaries begin to re-engage with learning.

The project has evolved since its inception and been refined to meet a number of challenges. The importance of small group sizes (12 maximum) was identified early on to ensure that beneficiaries receive the right level of support and that courses proceed at an appropriate pace. Working outside school gates, in youth centres and pupil referral units, has also proved effective. Youth centres in particular have proved popular because of their familiarity and less formal atmosphere. While the project has successfully engaged with most of its target group, it is currently working on strategies to recruit teenage mothers and to identify and recruit young carers.

As the project draws to a close, YES is actively looking to secure additional funding to ensure that the benefits of the project are not lost, and plans to use the experience and lessons learnt to develop a model that will work with older groups (17 to 19 year olds). The project has already refined the Job Seeking Skills qualification into an OCR accredited course called Ready Steady Work and is looking at ways of re-focussing the SUMO course. Connexions has secured alternative funding for these two courses, which are currently being run in youth centres around Gloucestershire and also at the Connexions first stop shop in Gloucester. The courses are set to continue beyond the end of the project. However, provision for the 14-16 age group looks likely to finish without a further injection of ESF funds.

Simon Cusworth, project manager of YES, has been involved in the project since the beginning and is proud of its achievement, and in particular the way the project has developed a formula that can be applied to other groups of people who are NEET or likely to become NEET. Simon comments:

‘We realised there were groups of young people in Gloucestershire who were not achieving their potential and likely to become NEET. YES is a pilot programme developed to catch them before that happens. To make education seem real in terms of training and job opportunities. The project finishes in December and we want to make sure YES leaves a legacy. The pilot proves the approach works for 14 to 16 year-olds and we plan to roll it out to older groups who are struggling at school or have turned their back on work.’

Contact details

Ronnie Graham, Project Coordinator
Prospects Services Ltd.
Connexions 92 Westgate Street, Gloucester , GL1 2PE
(01452) 426900
E-mail not available