When one door closes – the next is hard to open!

The old adage ‘When one door closes another opens’ is certainly not true for around one million young people who are classed as NEET, ‘ not in education or training’.

The latest Government figures reveal a total of 954,000 young people in England were not in employment or training during the first three months of the year.

For many young people their lack of qualifications and skills combined with a down turn in the economy has meant that when the door to formal education at 16 closes their chances of opening the door to their first job is greatly diminished.  

The latest report from The Work Foundation reveals that whilst the current recession is certainly having an impacting the underlying problem of NEETs has been on the increase over the last decade. Their report reveals that young people have been finding it increasingly harder to take the first step on the employment ladder, accounting for most of rise in the number of NEET people.

At Eureka Schools we have been working successfully with young people, stepping in where so often traditional education has failed to give them the skills they need to succeed in the job market.

We believe in teaching young people in a way they want to learn as opposed to the way the formal education system wants to teach. This means using gaming, technology, drama and theatre to give individuals the key skills that employers are looking for. As well as gaining ‘soft skills’ in the areas of CV writing, interview techniques, money management they also have the opportunity to gain more formal qualifications. Students have the chance to work towards qualifications from the Institute of Sales & Marketing Management, for some these will be the first qualifications they have achieved.  At the end of the programme all students go away with increased confidence, self-belief and ambition.

The Work Foundation report also highlights that if we are to have a real impact on the overall NEET figures we urgently need to address the issue of those individuals that can be classed as ‘Pre-NEET’. At Eureka Schools our Pre-NEET programmes use the same techniques as used for NEETS.  Our Pre- NEET programme is about prevention rather than cure. Here we help schools re-engage with young people to enable them participate to gain valuable life skills and at least minimum qualifications.