FEATURED STORY

New help for school leavers

New initiatives have been introduced at The Milton Keynes Academy to stop 16-year-olds leaving school in the next few weeks and becoming jobless.

Last year, six per cent of 16-year-olds who left the former Sir Frank Markham Community School were ‘NEET' - the term for young people not in education, employment or training.

Academy careers advisor Colin Middleton said that new measures are aimed at cutting this year's ‘NEET' rate.  "It's really important that we help young people while they are still at the school as when they leave it is sometimes difficult to contact them."

The Academy has devised a ‘traffic light' tracking system to monitor all 250 of this year's 16-year-old school-leavers, with students classified as red if they have no idea of what they will do, amber if they need assistance with their plans and green if they have definite plans.

"Staff at the Academy have been working with red and amber students giving them additional advice and guidance, talks with employers and trainers and work placements," Mr Middleton explained.

The school also organised a special event for all the red and amber students this week where representatives from Bedford Training Group, ISIS Training, JHP Training, Zenos, IN Training, Milton Keynes College and Milton Keynes Christian Foundation went into the Academy to help students with apprenticeships and other training programmes.

One of the students who attended, David Jeche, said: "The event was really good.  I was able to talk to someone about an apprenticeship in computing and they helped me make my mind up. They answered all the questions I had, and I'm sure it's the right thing for me now."

Last year, 82 per cent of 16-year-olds at Sir Frank Markham Community School went on to sixth form or college, six per cent had jobs and five per cent had apprenticeships or other training places.