Vocational and Employability Skills Base

Butts Pond Industrial Estate – Sturminster Newton

We are now accepting applications for our Skills Base project. Telephone us for more details on 01258 471759 or, to apply on line:

In February 2012, Equilibrium will launch a much needed ‘Alternative Education Centre - Employability Skills Training Base’ for young people from across North Dorset in a light industrial unit on the Butts Pond Industrial Estate in Sturminster Newton.

The base will provide young people who are either NEET (not in Employment, Education or Training) or at risk of NEET, with vocational training and qualifications through the new Foundation Learning curriculum, as well as the skills, confidence attitude and aptitude, to enable them to engage more fully with the opportunities available to them.

In this building and on a nearby parcel of land, the young people will learn practical skills in Horticulture, Vehicle Mechanics, Building Skills and Theatre Skills. They will also have an opportunity to improve their literacy and numeracy, alongside developing their softer ‘employability skills’ such as Accepting Responsibility, Self Reliance, Telephone Skills, Listening Skills, Negotiating, Action Planning, Working to deadlines and Creative problem solving.

In total, the project will accommodate some 32 students per day, five days a week. Courses for young people aged 14 to 19 and still in fulltime education will run for a thirty four week programme and courses for young people who have left fulltime education and are currently NEET will run for 22 weeks duration.

When fully up and running the programme will offer young people from across the North Dorset Partnership a much needed resource within reasonable travelling distance provided by a team that has many years experience of working with young people in a caring and supportive manner.

So why does it matter?

NEET status stands in the way of individuals and society achieving optimum productivity, social inclusion and good health. It may also perpetuate a worklessness culture that can be passed onto future generations of young people and result in NEET status being reinforced in families and communities across generations. NEET status affects young people’s life chances and in public policy terms, will have a significant cost implications.

In a report by the CBI in December 2009 warned that ‘Youth unemployment is reaching unacceptable levels!’

In the past year, youth unemployment has leapt from 714,000 to 928,000, or 19% of 16 to 24 year olds, much higher than the unemployment rate for the general population which is 7.8%.

“we know that the experience of unemployment tends to affect young people more adversely than most other age groups, and we must learn from the 1980’s when too many were left out of work for too long”

Mr Lambert – CBI

The economic cost of youth unemployment has been put at £4.7billion per year, or £90 million every week, according to a study by the Prince’s Trust.

Each young person not in employment, education or training (NEET) is thought to cost the public £97,000 on average over their lifetime in resource and public finance costs, according to the Department for Children Schools and Families.

Three in ten men and one in twelve women who have been NEET between sixteen and eighteen are involved in crime before they are thirty – three times the general population rate.

Equilibrium Youth Work is a not for profit, Community Interest Company developing and delivering quality support services for young people, in particular those that are hard to reach. We strive to find solutions to often difficult problems associated with providing services to children and young people.

We work in partnership with a wide range of professional agencies to develop greater awareness of young people’s needs in service planning and delivery at local and regional level. We plan and deliver a wide range of projects that make a positive difference to the lives of children and young people across Dorset.