NACRO have secured £3 million of European Social Fund money between October 2008 and December 2010.  The money is funding two projects called Switch On and the TIE Programme which provide training and mentoring based around the needs of the individual learner.  The participants in these projects range from 14-19 years old.  The participants are either young people who are at risk of expulsion or dropping out of school or college, or those who have left school but are not in education, employment or training.   

The two projects are called Switch On (SO2) and TIE (Training into Education or Employment or SO1).  Switch On works with 14-16 year olds who may be disengaged from the education system, manifest in high truancy rates or the threat or reality of expulsion.  Young people in such circumstances are very likely to be NEET later in life. 

Local schools refer pupils in these scenarios to the Switch On team for a short, highly focussed activity based course which runs for three 2 hour sessions per week, over a four week period.  During the sessions, the young people build up a relationship with a mentor at the same time as learning skills which may be useful in the future.  At the end of the four week programme, the relationship with the mentor continues for a further six weeks.  The project aims to get the young person re-engaged with school. 

The TIE Programme is aimed, for the most part, at 16-19 year olds, although 14-16 year olds can take part.  The programme assesses the young person’s learning and personal needs and designs a programme of accredited courses delivery over ten weeks, at a minimum attendance of twelve hours per week.  The curriculum is shaped by what the learner is interested in as well as any areas of weakness.  The project aims to get the young person into some form of education, employment or training. 

Bespoke Courses

The TIE programme begins with an in-depth, one-to-one, initial assessment which takes into account an individual’s learning wants, as well as needs.  Numeracy and literacy are assessed with an eye to future employment opportunities.  Based on the information gained from this discussion, a bespoke learning programme is designed.  This takes into account the learner’s personal interests to ensure the programme is completed as well as more practical concerns such as employability.  The TIE programme aims to: “Identify the barriers to employment, think of ways to address them and develop their skills for applying and keeping jobs”. 

The courses are offered through the Open Colleges Network (OCN)’s Progression Pathways Network which ensures that any learning is accredited.  If the participant completes a sufficient number of courses, full qualifications can be achieved.

Mentoring

A key aspect of both projects is the relationship built up between the young person and their mentor.  For many of the young people involved, “This is the first time anyone has given them time and energy.”  In Switch On, the relationship is built up over the first four weeks of the project which are based around sporting, art and adventure activity.  This frames the relationship so that the young person, “Does not see their mentor as a teacher or authority figure.  This allows trust to be built up, which is the key”. 

Upon completion of the four week programme, the mentoring continues in a diluted form for a further six weeks.  In this second phase, meetings are once a week, often held in school.  The local schools that NACRO are working with strongly subscribe to this mentoring system and provide rooms and facilities for the meetings to take place.      

Accompaniment to job interview

The TIE programme also aims to build up strong relationships between the young person and their support worker.  Where Switch On focuses on a young person’s behaviour and personal situation, TIE is geared towards careers advice and developing employability.  One of the key tools of the programme is for the support workers to remain closely linked to the young person’s progress by attending job or college interviews with them.  This flexibility addresses a key problem: the Project Coordinator explained that, often, after securing an interview, the young people do not turn up and many opportunities are lost as a result.    Working in partnership reduces this problem considerably. 

Paying for it

NACRO have £3 million of ESF funding to run these projects until the end of 2010 across Kent, Medway, Sussex and Surrey.  NACRO aims for the projects to become sustainable by the end of 2010.  They have been asked by the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme (ISSP) to design courses for them.  Schools and colleges have expressed interest in buying NACRO’s services on a wider scale.  They are also developing a database of volunteer mentors so that the project can expand. 

Does it work?

The ESF funding has targets attached to it.  For Switch On, the target is for 55% of participants progressing where ‘progression’ is independently defined by the school or a support worker based on evidence of whether the young person’s behaviour or outlook has improved.  The rates of progression are currently 60%.

The TIE Programme has a progression target of 75%.  This project, which lasts longer than Switch On, has a life span of 16 weeks.  The monitoring, therefore, has only been done for the first cohort.  Of this, 77% have progressed into education, employment or training.  Both programmes predict that the progression rates will rise. 

There are softer outcomes too with praise being given from project participants, teachers and mentors.  Many of the young people who have gone through the projects so far have expressed interest in coming back as mentors.  Irrefutable evidence of the success is that Government Ministers, including the Minister for Europe, are keen to visit and be associated with the projects. 

Challenges and next steps

NACRO’s partners in delivering these projects are enthusiastic and cooperative.  There is a feeling that they are filling a much needed void.  Many of the challenges come from the young people themselves who often have behavioural problems such as violence, or have recently left the criminal justice system.  This restricts the numbers who can go through the Programme at any one time. 

Contact: Coordinator:  SO2: Ola Agbebi : Phone: 07800998324

                                SO1: Aaron Marshall : Phone: 07800998191