by Ada White
The Prince’s Trust is aiming to begin another of its 12-week self-development programmes in September in Leicester.
The organisation aims to help young people aged between 16-25 develop their life skills as well as confidence and general life skills.
It aims to help young people from all different backgrounds and celebrate their inclusivity. The team attempts to improve the employability of the people in the programme by improving their CV and interview skills as well as team building.
They receive many different referrals from job centres and police and youth centres. The qualification at the end of the 12-week programme is equivalent to a B-Tech level 1 qualification.
Weeks 1 and 2 of the programme are centred around basic team building exercises which allow the participants to connect, as well as perform tasks that will be taken through into their future.
Pre-pandemic, a residential trip allowed the young people to sink into the programme and get to know their peers, however due to current restrictions of Covid this was no longer possible.
Following on from the trip, into weeks 3 and 4 a sponsored walk and cake sale will be held with all proceedings donated to the designated charity. During the following two weeks there is a community project which differs from course to course. It has included the improvement of garden spaces in the city as well as the local church gardens.
Weeks 7 and 8 are generally reserved for work placement with the organisation using its contacts to secure work experience for the participants, usually with the hope that they can find one that is similar to their likes and interests. The Prince’s Trust prides itself on creating a tailor-made environment that suits the needs of each of the young people.
This is followed by a week of CV building and development of interview skills. During weeks 10 and 11 team challenges are issued and the participants visit elderly homes to hand out food packages and give back to their local community.
The final stage of the process is the presentation week in which the young people talk about their experience with the 12-week programme. They invite their parents, friends and other family members to celebrate the progress that they’ve made as well as doing a speech to summarise.
The programmes have been running for over 10 years and have had a significant amount of positive feedback. The main goals of the programme are very often met with the participants making lifetime friends and developing their confidence and connections with others. They pride themselves on being especially helpful with those with special educational needs and anxiety as well as many other common struggles.
In order to prevent the risk of Covid exposure, when the course resumes, there are going to be a great amount of sanitary measures taken, including the wearing of visors by the organisers and masks by the participants as well as regular cleaning of surfaces.
They are hoping that once Covid restrictions have lessened, and the world goes back to normal they can resume normal procedures.
They usually operate in January, May and September as well as March, June and November. For more information contact the Prince’s Trust at 07793588920.
