MORE than 20,000 young people in the north are to learn vital employability skills to help support their transition from education to work.
The UK-wide Lifeskills programme, launched in 2013, is a free-curriculum-linked resource for 11-24 year-olds, which focuses on on three core modules: work skills, people skills and money skills.
In partnership with local charity Business in the Community NI, Barclays Bank is in charge of delivering the project to an estimated 21,000 students and hundreds of local teachers in the north over the next two years.
Through LifeSkills, Barclays’ employees volunteer in secondary schools and colleges to deliver the programme and young people learn skills such as CV writing, interview techniques, networking, problem solving, creativity, resilience, communication and managing online reputation.
Barclays head of corporate banking in Northern Ireland Adrian Doran explained that staff have been delivering the programme over the past four years, but it had always been the ambition to grow its reach.
"We will provide direct engagement with more than 10,000 young people a year and deliver tried and tested curriculum-based teaching resources to support educators working with students right across Northern Ireland, with a focus on the 20 per cent most deprived communities," he said.
Kieran Harding, managing director of Business in the Community NI added: “LifeSkills supports the creation of a strong talent pipeline of young people moving into the labour market, who can achieve their aspirations, which in turn addresses the significant societal issue of the skills gap and youth unemployment challenges we currently face.”
Post-primary schools can apply for LifeSkills support by contacting angela.mccartney@bitcni.org.uk, or calling 028 9046 0606.
