How To Support Young People

I have great deal experience with working with young people, especially those who have SEN and/or come from challenging or deprived backgrounds. My main role is as a Keyworker supporting young people progress into employment using the Talent Match Programme. As part of this project I work with a range of 18 – 24 year olds with significant barriers that prevent them from gaining employment.

I have a key role in recruiting the correct candidates for Talent Match and use a variety of contact sources such as the Joshua Project, The HIVE and the local Jobcentre plus. Once an eligible young person is found, I conduct initial assessments that gain me an insight into what the aspirations of the client are and how I can best support them to reach their
goals. I frequently use SMART Targeting in this process. Once this has been completed the young person receives consistent one to one support and is the foundation of helping the young person progress. Every session differs from the last and before each session I carefully prepare and design effective learning strategies so the client will achieve something new and continue to go forward in their progression. Due to the nature of client group these sessions can sometimes transform into something that is more of a priority such as having to sort out finances, work on behaviour issues, develop interview skills, sort out travel arrangements and apply for benefits. Being able to communicate to such a diverse client base effectively results in more young people staying engaged on the project and developing their skills.

Alongside the extensive support, I complete all relevant Talent Match paperwork (CDF, Sign up, Mentoring and Support logs etc), update client databases in line with confidentiality rules and organise interventions.
Since starting my post at the college, I have completed a level 4 Certificate in Education and Training. This training has helped me plan and deliver lessons for Bradford/Oastler Academy and the Students at Forster Community College. I have covered a wide range of subjects whilst teaching including Employability, ICT, English and Maths with the levels ranging from E2 to Level 2. During lunch times I have worked with 16 - 17 year olds learn new creative skills that have helped engage; and in some cases, re-engage learners into education at the college. During my time at PRISM (Pupil Referral Unit) I worked with students who had been excluded from school due to their behaviour. These lessons were planned and set up by myself to help the young people obtain stabilisation in their lives by expressing creativity alongside their English and Maths studies. A great deal of my time here was spent working closely with both the triangle group (11-16) and 18+ SEN group to manage their behaviour in a calm and collective way so that learning could continue in the
environment.

I have obtained teaching experience at Shipley College working with their adult learners to complete their final assignments for Health and Social Care level 3. This mainly consisted of helping the students organise their thoughts, film their videos and sequence their footage to make a film. The students came into contact with various barriers and issues during this process such as losing footage, computers breaking and not knowing how to transfer files from computer to computer. I supported them through these difficult and stressful times and managed to make sure all the groups completed their work on time

I was asked by a partner of the college to take park in organising and creating an installation for primary school children entitled ‘Winter Wonderland’ at the Delius centre in Bradford. This work was to tell the story of the snowfall that came down in Bradford and its surrounding areas in the early 90’s. As this was for such a young audience, I had to carefully plan the videos I was creating so that the information was given in clear and concise way so that story was easy to follow

I work with Social Media to promote different sources of information everyday and have been able to successfully promote traffic to different websites and businesses. I have done this to such an extent that the videos I have promoted (albeit to a very niche subject area) are now viewed for over fifty thousand minutes a month and have caught the eye of celebrities such as Ricky Gervais. These skills are easily transferable to other sectors such as education as it is only the information that is changing and not the system. I am able to use Photoshop to create promotional materials such as posters and leaflets. I have also made video content for the college entitled ‘Why study at Forster Community College’. My job here was to find a suitable number of students who were happy to be interviewed, conduct a video interview and edit all of the footage which was then used as for the Colleges YouTube channel.