Youth Employment and Training Initiatives Meeting (YETI)

Youth Employment and Training Initiatives meeting (YETI)

Minutes and Actions

Borehamwood, Welwyn and Hatfield YETI

Tuesday, 11th November 2014 10.30 - 12.30

Present Laura Dabner – Chair John Laing Training Lisa Eaglesham Oaklands College Beverley Woodhouse First Rung Concetta Kyriacou Jobcentre Plus Anne Ferrari DWP Jane Devlin JCP Peter Shea Youth Connexions Claire McMeekin Hit Training Natalie Arculli tchc Colin Marsh JCP Tony Jefedjian DWP job centre plus Apologies Susan Platten – JCP Borehamwood Xanthe Ballard – Learndirect / SPS Training Solutions

Item Minutes and Actions Who/when

1 Action points from previous meeting Actions from previous meeting reviewed. Peter discussed with LDD team to collate JCP/YC data and analyse area, location, age, sex, provision to help steer the matching process with young people. ACTION Peter and Jane to carry over data to measure correlations. Peter / Jane

Data consent, YETI survey has gone out and complete.

Year 11 and 12 talks – programme engaging secondary schools, 6 week programme, 2 hours per week. Offers to meet the needs of schools, pilot worked well and continue to offer this programme.

YETI calendar for hosting events, advertise events on beds and hearts network.

ACTION All providers to update webpage ‘what’s upcoming?’ on a regular All providers basis on changes in provision delivery.

2 Review of JCP & YC NEET data JCP – 38% decrease in 18-24’s years (Borehamwood & Hatfield) data) and there seems to be a steady drop every year. Provision, work coaches, labour market is on the up. Would it be helpful for providers to know more information about candidates e.g. sex, age, location, how long they have been unemployed – apply breakdown on data as actioned above. Peter / Jane

YC - certain areas have a difference in male/ female ratios. Dramatic fall in younger NEETS, 18-19 years old and lower qualification grades due to impact of RPA

Problems /Barriers to Participation Not enough provision, young people struggling to engage and with confidence, assessments with functional skills. Youth contract supports the transition stage of going into a work environment. Young people struggle with general attitude and appropriate behaviour etc. Eureka helps with barriers and attitudes within the workplace. They have been running sessions with Borehamwood JCP clients (www.eureka4l.com). Eureka provide programmes that recognise the complex issues which are involved with unemployment. They work with clients to equip them with the awareness, acceptance and skills to successfully progress to employment. Provision delivery needs to be more focus on traineeships. Suggestions of open day for young people within the area. Recommendation to tie this in with Apprenticeship week such as live demonstrations, speed working and more intimate events / smaller events. . 3 Planning for Apprenticeship Week Discussed TCHC Skills Show at Watford football club – providers attending 20th November 2014. Providers to promote services visually/physically with Apprentice ambassadors.

ACTION Event discussed for 12th of March 2015 organised via Watford YETI, Jane location TBA – JCP /YC/College. Oakland’s College confirming details for ‘Your future fair’ next year. Lisa

4 Gaps in Provision Since Ridgemond training construction based training provision gap. TCHC need more hands-on low-skilled trades such as multiskills, labouring, construction and provisions in the Bedford area for their customers. Job-readiness is not supported; schools need to focus on life skills and employability skills for the workplace. Function skills (Maths and English) are needed at Level 1 and 2 in additional to pre-Apprenticeship and Traineeship incentives to encourage the progression onto Apprenticeships Level 2. SPS have access to funding for pre-Apprenticeship and traineeships and support maths and English for 16-18 years to provide positive progression routes. We need to engage young people further and provide incentive for enrolling onto these programmes – momentary incentive, vouchers or the end journey. Young people not knowing what they want to do, we need more access to trial stages and industry specific work experience. Poor education maths and English qualifications. Mainly 16/17 year olds struggling for roles. 5 New ‘What’s New’ page Providers to promote events via social media youth connexions advertisement. Use this page Events for the whole Herts beds network and private events. Needs to be updated regularly - calendar on events will be useful for everyone to keep up to date.

AOB Jane is meeting with Julia Brady from NAS (SFA) November 2014 to discuss prioritises and gaps. We agreed on traineeships delivery re-focus L1 and L2 / entry route qualification support / employability skills funding to get customers more ‘job ready’ and incentivise them to take the progression routes from L1 - L2 - L3. JCP Work Programme has had a massive impact on customers – Jane measured 56% success rate to getting customers into employment or in front of employers at interview stage. YC find that work experience opportunities are on the low and schools do not focus enough on the low achievers. Higher academics seem to get the best opportunities as the low achievers are held back. Overall we need to work together to find more opportunities across the board to give students experiences to reflect on and develop further.

ACTION Gaps and barriers mentioned - we need to feed this back into the Anna 16-24 NEET strategy for further funding opportunities through the EFA.

ACTION Jane to feedback from meeting mentioned above during next YETI. Jane

Plans for the next meeting:

Date End of February – beginning of March

Time TBC

Venue TBC

Chair Anne Ferrari DWP