Your Future Project

Helping young people in East Sussex stay engaged and progress with their education

METHODOLOGY

Building on previous phases of a project originally developed in partnership with East Sussex County Council, the Youth Employability Service and The MY Trust, this final phase of the project was delivered by career guidance and training provider CXK.

Staff were employed as transition co-ordinators on Uni Connect contracts to deliver sessions on aspiration, resilience and managing transition. Initially, the project operated on a school referral basis, using the East Sussex County Council pupil monitoring system, Aspire, to identify eligible students. In this final phase, however, a mixture of referrals and whole group workshop was used.

Due to the pandemic, the project team had to adapt quickly to deliver activities and resources online, and did so effectively using systems developed in previous phases and the staff’s experience and training around safeguarding and mental health support. Despite school closures, the project exceeded the target set for engagement, and its online delivery made it possible to involve parents/carers in their sons’ and daughters’ one-to-one sessions.

IMPACT

The project was delivered to 600 students from 12 schools, two further education colleges and one alternative education provider and 30 parents/carers.

As a result of delivering activities online, the CXK team repurposed funding meant for face-to-face delivery to develop an e-learning module on resilience to enable students to engage with the programme at home rather than in school. The module is available as a web-based programme and as a mobile phone app, and was developed in consultation with Year 10, 11 and 12 students. It has been well received, and plans are being made to add more modules including one on post-Year 11 pathways.

Feedback from participants included: ‘Really informative and fun’ and ‘I liked being able to talk about my aspirations and get help.’ While schools found the project a source of invaluable support to refer disengaged students to, as they are overwhelmed with supporting students’ mental health and pastoral needs, particularly at the moment.

KEY FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• Schools appreciated the input and additional support for disengaged students and their parents/carers. As many referral services are being cut or severely reduced, this additional support was particularly welcome during Covid-19.
• A joined-up approach with input from stakeholders including East Sussex County Council and the Youth Employability Service (YES) was key to the project’s success in being able to accurately target and identify those students in need of support, as well as to offer bespoke support.
• The transition co-ordinators played a key part in liaising with schools to ensure all Year 11s in need of support were referred to YES and provided with additional resources where necessary.
• It has been recommended that the e-learning platform is developed further and more modules are added. This will provide a sustained and progressive activity for students to access both in school and at home.

 TALKING POINTS

• Do we need more projects where agencies join up and thus ensure that students meeting multiple indicators of disadvantage are reached?
• How do we maximise the opportunity that Uni Connect offers to target students as well as effectively use its considerable networks and expertise base?

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