At The Prince’s Trust, we believe every young person should have the chance to succeed. Our mission is to help young people aged 11 to 30 transform their lives by developing the confidence and skills to live, learn and earn.

Over 46 years, we have supported over 1 million young people across the UK, empowering them to get into jobs, education and training. The young people we support face multiple and complex barriers; are furthest from the labour market; and are most affected by poverty and inequality.

Our ambition to give more disadvantaged young people the opportunity to create a better future is a key driver of poverty reduction.

Our core education provision - Achieve - supports young people who are at risk of disengaging with education. The “Club” approach encourages young people from S1 to S6 to engage in an alternative vocational pathway.

Equipping young people for the future

Young people are encouraged to explore personal and social development, life skills and prepare themselves for work. We also equip young people with an SQA-accredited Certificate in Personal Development and Employability Skills (PDE) offered at SCQF levels 3-5 (with 18 credit points) which recognises the breadth of personal skills, qualities and attitudes required by employers across a range of sectors. The course is also flexible to involve local and national corporate partners.

The Prince’s Trust qualifications have been developed with the aim of progressing young learners into further education and/or employment and are available for use with learners. They give learners the opportunity to:

➔ Develop their own personal growth and engagement in, and through, learning

➔ Engage in learning that is relevant to them and support their development of personal skills and attributes that are essential for working life and employment

➔ Prepare themselves for progression into further education, apprenticeships or other work-based learning

➔ Develop their English and mathematics skills within a practical, relevant context.

Boosting skills ... from CV writing to jam making

Some of the skills the young people stated that they had gained from taking part in Achieve included: CV writing skills, completing application forms, money management, jam making, food growing, sales skills, woodworking, health and fitness knowledge and ‘the confidence to come out of our comfort zone’.

Through our conversations with young people and their teachers, we observed that the young people attached a particular importance to the qualification gained through Achieve, this may be as they were in their final years of school and are thinking about their next steps. The Prince’s Trust programme offers them the chance to gain a much needed qualification to set them up for their next chapter in life.

All of the young people we asked expressed that they felt happier since they had been part of Achieve.

Following on from the course, pupils said:

“I now think I want to stay on at school.”
“I want to go to college.”
“I think it’s [their future] going to be good.”
“It’s given me work opportunities by practising for interviews.”
“It’s helped my behaviour.”
“I liked the work placement.”