Northern Ireland Assembly Committee for Employment and Learning Visits Young People In Omagh

Transitional workers Ian and Emma, with former Give and Take participant Jason Neill and Chair of the Employment and Learning Committee Robin Swann MLA

During their visit to Omagh Community House, MLAs met with young people currently and previously involved with Include Youth’s Give and Take Scheme. The purpose of the visit was to hear first-hand from young people, often referred to as ‘NEETs’ (not in education, employment or training), about their experiences of moving from one organisation to another.

Giving evidence on transitions to the Committee Sara Boyce, Policy Coordinator at Include Youth, said:

“Starting a new course or a job only to find you cannot sustain it for whatever reason is not a desired outcome for any young person. Thankfully most will benefit from the support of those around them and will quickly re-establish themselves on their career path. However for those young people who have additional barriers to overcome the impact of an unsuccessful move on is much more profound.

“In response to this we have established a two year pilot project on transitional support to help young people leaving our Give and Take Scheme in the next stage of reaching their career goal. Our evidence is telling us that without such support young people making the move to more mainstream options will struggle to maintain their place.

“We’ve put in place two dedicated members of staff, who work across all five Health and Social Care Trust areas, to provide support to young people in the six months after the Scheme as well as track their progress for up to a year.”

Following the brief presentation by Include Youth, the Committee took a tour of the Scheme’s Omagh office and engaged in a lively discussion with the young people before officially launching the new Transitional Service.

Chairperson of the Committee for Employment and Learning, Robin Swann MLA, said:

“The Committee is all too aware of the difficulties faced by young people not in education, employment or training. We know that for many of them, the move into further education and employment can be difficult and daunting. We were therefore delighted to visit Omagh for the launch of Include Youth’s pilot transitional service, which will offer vital support to young people as they move from the organisation’s Give and Take Scheme into further education and employment settings. We had a very useful engagement with young participants in the Give and Take Scheme, who spoke openly about the issues and barriers they have encountered.

“We hope that this transitional service can serve as a model for organisations across Northern Ireland. This kind of targeted support is invaluable for those who fall into the NEETs category, and the Committee is happy to support any measure that can help to guide them back onto the pathway to success.”

Include Youth’s Give and Take Scheme is a pre-vocational employability programme which aims to improve the employability and increase the self-esteem and confidence of vulnerable young people aged 16 to 21 who are not ready to participate in mainstream training.

ENDS

Media Enquiries: For more information contact Sharon Whittaker, Communications Officer at Include Youth, on 028 9031 1007 or [email protected]