Connexions in Buckinghamshire is holding events focusing on helping young people gain diplomas that will widen their choices after leaving education:
The diplomas have been developed with employers, schools, colleges and universities and are currently in 10 different subjects.
They aim to provide students with a route into higher education or employment combining learning with practical experience.
For more information young people can visit www.buckschoices4me.com or contact their Connexions Personal Adviser in school or call 0845 313 3413.
via Bucks Free Press

In a move to get more young people out of NEET status and into employment, the careers office in Coventry and Warwickshire will be sending out letters to over 1500 young people inviting them to take part in the government’s Entry to Employment scheme:
There are 1,692 16, 17 and 18-year-olds in Coventry and Warwickshire who fall into the category.
Numbers have increased this year because of the credit crunch which is hitting 18-year-olds leaving college or school and looking for a job particularly hard.
Staff from young people’s careers service Connexions are …

The recent YouGov index shows that out of work young people feel unhappy about more aspects of their life than people in work:
While 15% say that their life lacks direction, 13% claim to feel down or depressed all or most of the time and 12% feel isolated all or most of the time.
These Northern Ireland results come as part of a UK-wide survey of 2,088 16-to-25-year-olds which suggests that unemployed young people are twice as likely to feel down or depressed than those in work.
Via 4NI

Can working for free provide a path out of a NEET lifestyle for young people?
Courtney Theobald worked 14-hour days for nothing to prove her worth and escape life as a NEET. The 18-year-old, from Stroud, Glos, was unemployed at the end of a one-year course in childcare.
But she refused to spend her days lounging in front of the telly and did six months’ unpaid work at a clothes shop, only to be told they couldn’t afford to take her on.
Then Courtney found that a 99p store was looking for employees …

The Princes Trust YouGov Youth Index survey details the lasting effects of the recession and unemployment on the country’s youth, and warns could cause a ‘lost generation’:
The young unemployed are already significantly less happy and confident – even about health, family relationships and friends – than those in work, it claims.
The extent to which feelings of lowered self-esteem permeate the lives of youths not in employment, education or training (so-called Neets) is revealed in a poll.
Conducted for The Prince’s Trust, the YouGov Youth Index documents the psychological setbacks inflicted …

The latest pre-budget report from The Treasury shows increased school pending in addition to more money to help low income families:

Spending on schools will rise by 0.7 per cent a year in real terms in 2011-12 and 2012-13. Expenditure on sixth forms and further education colleges is to increase by 0.9 per cent – helping to fund a 2010 continuation of this year’s “September guarantee” of a place in education or training for every 16 or 17-year-old who wants one.
The increase in spending on schools reflects the political danger of …

Figures from Halton Borough Council aere showing that NEET figures have fallen from 13.2% in October 2008 to 10.5% in October 2009:
The reduction in a year-on-year comparison equates to an additional 127 of the borough’s young people who have found work, training placements or returned to education.
The council said more teenagers are staying on in education, and figures show that at the end of October, 81.01% of 16 to 18-year-olds were in continued learning compared with 73.45% at the end of October last year.
The fall is being hailed by the …

Glasgow’s director of education today stated that although the city’s exam result grades have declined, there are more ways the measure success. Including more vocational qualifications and increased attendance:
Earlier this week exam results published online by the Scottish Government, and highlighted in the Evening Times, showed fewer fifth year pupils in the city passing three and five Highers.
However today Glasgow’s director of education services highlights the reasons that are linked to the city’s attainment record and other measures of success not reflected in exam tables.
Leaver destinations is one area which …