College 'wants to help Neets back into the system'

A college in Lancashire is confident it has found a unique way of reaching young people who are not in education, employment or training (Neets).

Blackburn College said its programme had been so successful that it was about to open a second site in neighbouring Darwen.

Its Blackburn hub - based in a refurbished former department store - is neither a job centre nor a college. Instead, its staff focus on giving young people the skills and training they need to get back "into the system".

Dr Fazal Dad, from the project, said: "One of the key things is [that] it meets them at their level of engagement and it's important that you actually understand someone, where they're starting."

One trainee who has benefited from the Blackburn College scheme, Akeeb Ahmed, is learning joinery skills.

He said: "I love to be practical.

"When it comes to a laptop or writing, I can't focus, I can't get my head around it.

"But when it comes to doing this, it's like I could build you a full house!"

Ahmed, who struggled massively to live alone following the loss of his mother two years ago, was referred to the centre after dropping out of college.

"I was lonely all the time as well," he told the BBC. "So that's why my first year of college was a bit up and down."

One of the course managers, Katie Tormay, said the centre helped young people with problems to really turn their lives around.

She explained: "We've got young people that have come from quite tragic home lives, or they've not got that support at home and they've not got that role model at home.

"Until you really sit and speak to some of our young people, it would probably be easy to say 'Just go and get a job'.

"With those young people, without the support we give, that is impossible."

The government is to pay more companies to hire young people as a way of tackling spiralling rates of youth unemployment.

Firms will get a £3,000 grant for every person they take on aged 18 to 24 who is on benefits and has been looking for a job for at least six months.

An existing scheme that pays firms to take on those who have been out of work for even longer will also be expanded.

Across the UK, about one-in-eight 16 to 24-year-olds (abut 950,000 people) are classified as Neets.

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