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Where am I?: Home | ESF Projects |
Over the last two years LCEBA has received additional funding through Central London Learning and Skills Council from the European Social Fund to run projects that target some of the most disadvantaged young people in London.
Three projects have been completed, each targeted at young people at risk of not being in education, employment or training (NEET).
Future Plus
This project provided a menu of education business link activities to meet the specific needs of young people aged 13-17 at risk of not being in education, employment or training (NEET).
Seven of the LCEBA consortium partners put together a range of programmes for young people which included FE/University taster days, work experience placements, mentoring schemes and a range of employability events. Each activity was designed to improve student motivation, self esteem and attendance: activities also emphasised the importance of staying in learning.
A final, external, evaluation undertaken in June 2007 showed that although a number of barriers had affected delivery, the total number of beneficiaries, 826, exceeded the original target of 600 by 38%.
Five delivery partners exceeded their individual beneficiary target and the majority felt that Future Plus had resulted in tangible impact.
Future Links
Future Links This project also provided a menu of education business link activities to meet the specific needs of 1200 young people aged 16 -24 at risk of social exclusion and in danger of becoming NEET.
The activities included e - mentoring, employability programmes/work related learning, career events and workplace visits designed to improve motivation, self esteem and attendance and which also emphasised the importance of staying in learning.
A final, external, evaluation undertaken in June 2007 showed that a total of 1530 young people had benefited from the programme, exceeding the original target of 1200 by 28%. As with Future Plus, five delivery partners exceeded their individual beneficiary target.
CRE8 Your Future
This
£1m pan London Project funded through ESF was a two year, (2005
2006), programme aimed at young people aged 13 -17 at risk of
social exclusion and in danger of becoming NEET.
LCEBA was the lead partner in the project : delivery was undertaken by Collage Arts, Connections Communications Centre (CCC), Young Enterprise and Education Business Partnerships ( EBPs) throughout the 33 London boroughs. Beneficiaries were targeted in PRUs, SENs, YOTs, Youth Clubs and mainstream schools; in the latter, schools themselves identified the beneficiaries against the Cre8 criteria.
Programmes encompassed a range of aspirational activities designed to deliver:
- a range of soft outcomes such as improved motivation, confidence, self esteem and attendance, plus team working and working with adults
- quantifiable outputs including a range of NVQ equivalent qualifications
- a comprehensive menu of mentoring (either face to face or via email) online and face-to-face learning, work experience, plus advice and guidance was offered . The programmes focused on the media/creative industries as a way to re-engage young people.
The final, external evaluation showed that 2122 young people benefited from the Cre8 Your Future project compared to the original target of 2125. Of the 8 quantifiable objectives, 5 were achieved.
A dissemination event was also held at Westminster Council House in February 2007 which was attended by many of the delivery partners from across London.
The project’s evaluator , Linsey Caton, LjC Strategic Analysis, identified some real successes including:
- Positive comments were received from teachers and partners were able to extend their services to new groups of young people such as young offenders.
- Sutton Education Business Partnership produced a DVD which will continue to be used by the Leaving Care and Youth Offending Teams.
- CCC produced a compilation DVD to show case of young people’s achievements: the centre is to continue further outreach with Bridge Education (SEN).
- Young people participating on the project through Collage Arts staged a performance of Guy and Dolls through which they were able to achieve a certificate.
- Business Links London West presented a case study on working with Hayes FM.
- Bexley EBP showcased a mentoring project which was run in partnership with London College of Communication.
The evening’s highlight was an impressive improvisation performance by some young people from a project at Collage Arts.
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