A new project designed to prepare children as young as eleven for the workplace has been launched in Devon. The £16,000 project, called Reaching for the Future, will focus on key stage three children (11-14 year olds) — the first time such a scheme has been tried. The project aims to improve childrens' prospects for future employment by equipping them with the skills, competencies and attitudes essential to the work environment while they are still at the critical, formative stage in their development. The bulk of the investment — £12,500 — is coming from Devon Renaissance, the rural regeneration partnership organisation for the county. Liz Abell, programme co-ordinator, said: 'One of the most challenging issues facing the area is to ensure the skills that young people are developing are in tune with the changing needs of businesses. 'We are very happy to support a project that will try to address this, by linking together schools and businesses and running activity days that are fun for the students to take part in and which will help them understand how businesses work. 'We hope that this is a small step towards dealing with the longer term issues of unemployment, low skills levels and outward migration of the qualified workforce that is prevalent in North Devon, Torridge and West Devon.' The project is being managed by the Devon Education Business Partnership (DEBP), part of Connexions Cornwall and Devon. It is focusing on students attending Okehampton College, Tavistock Community College, Great Torrington Community School, Bideford College and Holsworthy Community College, . The project offers students the opportunity to work closely with employers in a number of knowledge-based industry areas. These include tourism, agriculture, catering and hospitality, health and social care, retail, construction and engineering. As part of the school curriculum, each student will benefit from a minimum of two work-related and enterprise activities over the period of the project. Students will be challenged to tackle problems or issues that involve an element of risk and uncertainty about final outcomes, and subsequently rewarded for a successful resolution. Employers will be invited to act as a business partner on each of these activities.
