The Prince’s Trust launches new Achieve programme for 13-19 years old

Helping the youths to achieve more

Helping the youths to achieve more

The Prince’s Trust has launched a new programme designed to support young people who are at risk of underachieving at school or college to engage with and succeed in education.

The Prince’s Trust Achieve programme is a flexible provision for 13-19 year olds who are experiencing challenges with attendance, attainment or motivation and may be at risk of exclusion or not attaining the grades they are capable of. It incorporates the best of the youth charity’s existing xl and Fairbridge programmes, which have long helped young people of school age to reach their potential, both in education and in their future employment.

The need for alternative curriculum offerings like Achieve remains clear, with a third of school-leavers still not achieving five A*-C grade GCSEs and more than half of young people in Scotland not achieving 5 National Fives. The situation is even worse for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, who are far more likely to fail to achieve at these levels than their peers.

The new Achieve programme is designed to help disadvantaged young people who are struggling to develop important character skills through relevant, engaging and informal learning. It will connect young people with the world of work and equip them with the transferrable skills and knowledge they need to succeed, focusing particularly on literacy, language and numeracy (LLN) and science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

According to Richard Chadwick, Director of Programmes and Development at The Prince’s Trust, “Too many students in the UK become disengaged with education and leave school or college with few qualifications, low levels of confidence and low aspirations for the future. We have a long history of working successfully with education providers to combat this problem and have drawn on our expertise in youth based work to develop our new Achieve programme, which is our most flexible provision yet for people of school age.”

Young people will be able to access Achieve from August 2016 in schools, colleges or, in some regions, at a Prince’s Trust Centre. Further Education providers can also deliver the programme as NEET prevention, either as a part time study programme or as part of a full time study programme.

This year, The Prince’s Trust will work with more than 500 partner schools and organisations to support almost 10,000 young people through the Achieve programme. More information about how a school, college or alternative education provider can deliver the Achieve programme can be found at https://www.princes-trust.org.uk/help-for-young-people/unlock-your-potential/achieve

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