Contents

Introduction to Quest

QUEST E-Game for personal development and work sustainability

This suite of interactive computer based learning materials was commissioned by the LSC in response to a request for an innovative approach to the delivery of learning to trainees on the LSC funded Entry to Employment (E2E) programme, many of whom, on joining the programme, can be described as disengaged, disaffected and suffering from the distractions resulting from any of a wide range of personal issues.

The use of games to engage this cohort of students in learning had already been identified as a useful approach by the Standards Unit in the materials they released to the sector in 2004. QUEST takes this development one stage further. By utilising the computer gaming environment, which is becoming a ubiquitous element in the lives of young people, it provides a compelling environment for the trainee, significantly reducing any reticence or reluctance to participate in programme delivery.

Although the original target group for the materials was the work based learning provider and E2E trainee, the development team have been very conscious of the need to create a product with as wide an appeal as possible. The development of the game environment and graphics reflects this need for versatility and the result is a suite of learning materials which extensive testing has shown to have appeal to a much wider 14 – 25 year old cohort with relevance to a wide range of organisations such as secondary schools (PSHE curriculum, work experience), Pupil Referral Units, Youth Service Teams, Young Offender Institutions etc.

Quest addresses 24 learning objects, split into two broad areas, namely Personal Development and Work sustainability, which equate to in excess of 5 hours of learning materials utilising sound, animation and graphics that will assist young people with their personal development and progression into further education/training and employment.

Personal Development Module Overview:

When young people access personal development literature to enhance their employment prospects, it is because they tend to be aware of what personal development is, and what it is that they wish to be further developed. However this is by no means the norm for many young people who need to be made aware of the value of personal development as a starting point. Needs analysis showed a need for an interactive multimedia package to give a brief overview of what the Personal Development issues are and that they lie with the individual learner.

The subject areas addressed cover Trust, Improving Self Esteem, Developing Realistic Goals, Responding to Problems and Stress, Managing Aggression, Managing Peer pressure and Developing a Support Network.

Work Sustainability Module Overview:

This has been designed to respond to organisational flaws in the progression of learners into mainstream education/training, or into full time employment. Many young people, particularly those with the profile we describe, feel unsupported, confused and unable to cope with the dramatic changes that take place in the world of work, and quickly return to either the benefit system or provision. This module seeks to break this cycle of failure by providing early insight, knowledge and experience of legislation, roles, responsibilities and relationships associated with the world of work.

Outline subject areas are:

• What a Company Looks for in an Employee covers, Presentation, Timekeeping, Loyalty and commitment, Personal Hygiene

• Your First Days at Work addresses Planning your route to work, What will your first days be like, Company Hierarchy, Training and Development, Dress codes

• Your rights and Responsibilities at Work covers Basic Employment Law, Working Time Regulations, Minimum Wage Laws, Basic Rights at Work, How and Who to Complain to

Both modules follow a drill and practice format to drive the acquisition of skills and knowledge. They include question and answer situational games eg “What would you do if?”, “How would you cope if?” as well as motivational interactive games typified by the user starting with nothing, and through a series of tasks growing like cyber pets but based around motivational issues. This is an approach which has proved successful in other programmes, notably those to teach basic skills to young disaffected learners. The choice of gaming styles was based around those favoured by user groups, made up of our target audience, who were used extensively to influence our approaches and for ongoing evaluation during development of the modules.

All the games are designed to be played in an individual or group environment but the choice of how to incorporate the materials into curriculum delivery remains that of the teacher/tutor. The following pages give an insight into the content and how it might be beneficially used but it will be useful to note the following:

• All the units are stand alone although, certainly in the E2E context, it is likely that personal development would be addressed prior to work readiness and the work preparation units themselves also follow a natural progression.

• Each unit has the option to be played “end to end” or can be started/completed at set points in the unit which correspond to specific learning points

• The unit “Self Development and Your Support Network” is summative in nature, reinforces the learning points in the other Personal Development modules and provides a natural conclusion to this module as well as an environment for tutors to discuss issues surrounding trust and the value of realistic goal setting. As such we would suggest maximum value from this unit will only be achieved when the other personal development units have been played.

• When playing the Quest game, there maybe other, wider social issues that can be raised for discussion, using the various characters in the game as examples. Some of these points are raised at the end of the relevant modules where you can also find other relevant exercises on the subjects covered in “Quest”.

The latter part of this tutor guide provides background reading, references and context for the QUEST development which we hope you will find useful

Module 1 - Personal Development (Social and Emotional Intelligence)

Unit 1- Improving Self Esteem

Learning Objectives:

• Demonstrate awareness of the factors that give you your self-identity

• Demonstrate awareness of the conditions that create positive self - esteem and confidence

Areas of work/discussion:

• Describing yourself – not just in physical terms but the things that are important to you, your personality traits.

• What are the main things you like/dislike about yourself? – are there more things you like or more things you dislike? Why?

• What are the things you feel most strongly about? Social issues? Politics? Animals? Religion? Etc.

• What are your thoughts on the way you act/behave? What do you think you are good at? What would you like to improve?

• If ‘Jim could fix it’ or if you had a genie in a lamp or a fairy godmother, what would you wish for?

• What do you value and how has this influenced the way you feel about yourself?

• Who are the important people to you and why?

Self Esteem exercises

Getting to know myself.

How do we deal with our feelings?

Values and beliefs

How do I manage myself?

MAPS – these are a very pictorial form of PCP. It relies on the person identifying what they want and how that is influenced by their history. It also relies on an individual (or people in a circle of support) identifying who needs to be part of the plan (can be a good way of introducing the relationship circle), and those people agreeing to signing up to playing their part.

PERSONAL FUTURES PLANNING – This method looks at helping a person describing their life now and then looking at how they would like it to be in the future. It helps people understand what they need to build on and how they can move towards their desirable future.

It is important that all the plans made from these exercises are SMART and reviewed so that the exercise does not become another token gesture.

Use the following diagram of relationship circles. Describe what each of the circles means and ask them to think about and write the names of all of their family, friends, professionals and acquaintances in the appropriate circles and discuss why they have placed them in those circles.

These circles can be used to develop circles of support, where needed. The idea of a circle of support was developed in Canada and was introduced to the UK in the mid-80s.

A circle of support is a group of people who meet together to support somebody through a difficult period in their life or to help somebody to achieve their aspirations against a number of personal challenges. The person they are helping is in charge, both in deciding who to invite to be in the circle, and also in what they ask the circle for help or support in, although a facilitator may be used to liaise between members and ensure everyone knows their role and that actions decided on are carried out.

All members are volunteers and may include family, friends and other community members. They are there because the person they are helping has chosen them and trusts them and because they have the knowledge and experience to help to show the person a way to overcome their difficulties and what choices they have in life. They are not there to solve the person’s problems for them but to empower the person to move forwards.

Be as creative as possible in these exercises, for example, use photos, family trees, the drawing of pictures, life maps, refer to terms of reference that will engage them such as news items or television drama or use drama and role play in the class or group.

Quest Discussion Topics.

Why would Salty blame himself? It was the captain’s incorrect manoeuvre that caused the accident not Salty’s navigational skills. Did he assume that the captain’s authority made him less prone to mistakes; therefore it must be his fault. Was he already suffering from low self esteem? (We see in other modules that Salty had little schooling, could this be why he took the blame?)

Are self esteem and confidence the same? What is the difference? Being happy with ones limitations could produce high self esteem but limit confidence to do a task. If they accept that no-one is good at everything and they believe their skills lie elsewhere then this should not reduce their self esteem.

Conversely, someone with low self esteem may be very confident that they can complete a certain task or know they have a particular skill, but this may not be enough to overcome their general feeling of ineptitude in other areas.

Why may the ingredients of the potion help boost self esteem?

Unit 2 - Managing Aggression

Learning Objectives:

• Demonstrate awareness of a range of strategies to manage aggression

NB: This is a sensitive subject – be prepared for disclosure of events or circumstances that have caused and continue to cause pain. This work should only be done in an atmosphere where students feel safe to reveal what causes them to be angry and to share what might be very personal information.

Everyone has the right to exclude him or herself from participating if they don’t feel safe to do so. A place where they can take themselves to “cool off”, take refuge or be alone might also be useful. Ground rules, agreed by all parties and kept on display are a good starting point for such group work.

Suggested discussion areas:

• What makes you angry? - This can be done in general terms with suggestions being freely given by all and can start some useful discussions.

• How anger develops –the external and internal factors in the build up of emotions.

• Is it okay to be angry? – the positive side of anger – rights and responsibilities –positive role models of campaigners who have channelled anger positively e.g. Bob Geldof

• The consequences of anger –not just getting in trouble but anger can make you ill, can stop you achieving a positive outcome etc

• Anger v assertiveness

• Positive Dealing mechanisms

A range of methodologies can be used: ideas lists on the board / flipchart, role-play. Drama, discussions of scenarios from plays or television; alternative outcomes – get the group to suggest alternative endings for these scenarios that could have worked out more positively. Group members talk through original ‘what makes me angry?’ list to suggest positive ways of dealing with each one, use of outside agencies (youth workers, drama groups etc).

Quest Discussion Topics.

Why should walk away be the best option? Discuss the other options mentioned for controlling anger in the game and see if you can come up with any others.

Are there situations where it may not be possible or even desirable to walk away? Could it be better on occasions to stay and put forward a point of view that may diffuse the situation rather than letting it fester further? What happens if you are surrounded or blocked in?

Should we be using Arnie for our crew in the first place, after all, he is in prison for a violent crime? Does necessity (he is the only engineer) mean he should be released and forgiven? Has he proven himself capable of handling his aggression, or is it still necessary for him to be “mentored”? We learn in later modules that Arnie now attends anger management classes; do the student’s think this is a more appropriate alternative to prison? Do your student’s think aggression is more akin to a disease or merely a lack of self control? Can Arnie change his ways? Would your students trust him?

Unit 3 - Your Response to Problems & Stress (addressing aspects of “Managing Peer Pressure”)

Learning Objectives:

• Demonstrate awareness of a range of strategies to manage problems and stress

• Demonstrate awareness of a range of strategies for managing peer pressure

Discussion/Topic areas:

• What is stress? What are the dangers of stress?

• What causes you to feel stressed?

• Test your stress levels! (Most people enjoy doing tests like these but this one is more useful than most!) See below.

• Coping with peer pressure

• Relaxation techniques

• The importance of rest, diet and exercise

• Planning ahead and positive thinking

Methodologies:

Discussions, role-play, drama presentations, expert input on nutrition, stress management etc, external resource leaflets (counselling, Childline, Samaritans etc).

Stress Test: (www.teachhealth.com)

Relaxation Techniques:

This is a chance for some enjoyable but positive activities – whilst they might cause riotous enjoyment – try to keep them calm and ensure that the serious benefits of these activities are taken on board!

• Create a relaxation room (practical) – either physically or in design for rest and relaxation – discuss benefits of low lighting, colour, aroma etc

• Meditation

• Study of alternative therapies: Aromatherapy, Tai Chi, Reiki, etc

• Use of experts to give demonstrations and workshops

Quest Discussion Topics.

Talk to the students and ask them what other things may cause young people stress (family problems, fashion, conformity, college! etc.) Why does stress have such a dramatic effect on some people? Why are some people able to manage stress and others are not? Can you think of any other situations where stress is actually beneficial?

Cybergirl’s friend tried to get her to commit a crime. Should a friend put you in that situation? Cybergirl didn’t get her friend into trouble by naming them but did promise to get the cards returned. Is this right? Is it enough? Would the students report their friends? May they think differently depending on the seriousness of the crime? Should it matter how serious it is, surely it’s either morally the right thing to do or it is not?

Cybergirl has needed electronic devices to help her overcome certain disabilities. The students could discuss what it is like to be different and talk about specific problems that disabled people face and their potential strengths.

Cybergirl also has a specific talent and maybe seen as clever or a “geek” (even though we have no idea what level of education she has had, her economic and family background etc.). Salty, who has had little schooling (see self esteem and other modules) also has a special talent (for navigation). This could introduce the subject of multiple intelligences. Not everyone has skills in maths or words but they can usually identify something they are good at such as sport, dancing, spatial awareness or music etc. What skills other than words and numbers do your students have?

Unit 4 - Self Development and Your Support Network (including aspects of “Developing Realistic Goals” and “Trust”)

Learning Objectives:

• Demonstrate awareness of and ability to set own goals

• Demonstrate awareness of appropriate components of a support network

• Demonstrate who they can and can’t trust and why

• Identify advantages and disadvantages of being able to trust people

• Understanding trust in different situations.

• Understanding the importance of questioning people’s motives before a decision on whether trust can be made.

• Identify different aspects of personal development

• Identify different aspects of an appropriate support network

• Identify you own development needs

• Recognise difference between short, medium and long term goals

• Recognise the need for goal setting

• Be able to set a realistic goal

Quest Discussion Topics.

The character is the captain of the ship. They have to lead the crew and will need leadership qualities. Ask the students to list qualities that a leader may require. Pool all the suggestions and ask the students to record which of these qualities they think they may possess or may be able to develop - bear in mind negative qualities can be described positively and vice versa eg stubborn – determined, narrow minded – focused etc.

Module 2 – Work Preparation

This module is appropriate for both tutors and learners.

Unit 1 - What an Employer Looks for in an Employee

Learning Objectives:

•Demonstrate knowledge of how your behaviour affects colleagues and clients

•Demonstrate an understanding of the need for loyalty and commitment

•Demonstrate knowledge of personal hygiene

•Demonstrate the need for good time keeping at work

1.1 Presentation

These learning objectives relate to preparation for interview, or actually in an interview.

Positive and negative effects of personal behaviour:

It is important that a future employer has a positive impression of you because they need to make a judgment very quickly for someone to work in their company. You need to appear to be:

• Reliable

• Trustworthy

• Polite

• Clean

• Eager, keen and motivated

• Sober

Demonstrate knowledge of the elements that affect the way people see you.

Your dress: always dress smartly not matter what the job is, don’t dress as you would to do the job. Don’t wear your baseball cap etc. E.g., going for an interview on a building site, dress smartly not in working clothes.

Personal hygiene: Make an extra effort for an interview, but don’t wear really strong perfume or aftershave.

Facial expression: Smile (but don’t grin), look interested, make eye contact without glaring.

Body language: If it feels comfortable when you go into the interview shake hands and say your name. When answering questions lean slightly forward. But, don’t slouch, don’t pick your nose/ears/teeth, don’t fart, don’t burp, don’t yawn, don’t scratch, look alert and interested, don’t stare out of window or at the floor.

Acceptable language: Speak very clearly and be sure that the other person can understand and hear what you are saying. Address the person in the same way that they have introduced themselves, e.g., if they say their name is Mr. Branson, call them Mr. Branson. Don’t swear, and don’t be too ‘street’.

1.2 Concern for Others:

If you interviewed in a group, always ask and answer questions and show you are listening to other group members.

Humour: This doesn’t mean trying to be funny by telling jokes in the interview. Don’t drink, smoke or take other substances before the interview. You can also get help and advice on getting a job on the Internet. Here is an example:

Tips for the interview:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/Employment/Jobseekers/LookingForWork/fs/en

1.3 Time Keeping

Get to your interview on time:

Work out how to get there – you might need to check bus and train timetables, or ask someone for a lift. Remember that if you get the job you’ll have to make your own way there every day. Make sure you leave plenty of time to get to your interview, in time to go the toilet, and find the right room. Arriving a quarter of an hour early would be a good idea.

What is good time keeping?

This means being ready to start work at the right time and not just turning up at this time. For example, leave enough time before you are due to start work to go to the toilet, get a drink, or whatever. Get back in time from your breaks and stay to your proper finish time. Don’t start getting ready to leave 10 minutes early. Good time keeping will help you keep your job, and might even help you to get promotion. Lateness could lose you pay, land you a warning, or even the sack.

1.4 Loyalty and commitment

Identify the personal benefits of commitment

Companies expect their employees to be committed to the company. You can show this by always turning up on time, working hard, being part of a team and willing to learn new skills.

The benefits of doing this are to: -

• Make you feel good about work

• Help you to fit in

• Increase your chances of promotion or even a pay rise

• Gain the respect of your co-workers

Respond appropriately to a challenge to your loyalty

If someone questions your loyalty to your work, try to find out why they feel this way. The reasons may or may not be your fault. If these problems are down to you, try to put these things right because it will help you in the future. If it is not your fault, be assertive and explain what has happened.

1.5 Personal Hygiene

The need for good personal hygiene:

Good Health: Lice, tooth decay, gum disease, stomach upsets can all be prevented with a good personal hygiene routine.

Successful Relationships: People are more likely to be happy to be around you if you have a good personal hygiene routine.

Getting a job: An employer will expect you to turn up for an interview clean and well presented. If you don’t you won’t get the job.

Daily: bath, shower, hair wash, teeth, deodorant, underwear, socks, shave in some cases. Wash your hands after the toilet, before you eat, before making a meal.

Weekly: toe nails, shave, fingernails, washing clothes and fumigating trainers.

Quest Discussion Topics.

All the new inhabitants are facing a new life and the prospect of new jobs. What may they face in a new country?

It may be appropriate to prompt a discussion about the circumstances asylum seekers might have found themselves in - eg. If you were to leave home with 10 minutes' notice - What would you take with you? Why? How would you feel about what you left behind?

How might the people on the new island see you? How would you want them to behave towards you?
They might have different social rules. How would you know? How would you
behave towards them?

Unit 2 -Your First Days at Work

Learning Objectives:

• Demonstrate benefits of planning your route to work

• Demonstrate what you need to know for your first days at work

• Demonstrate an awareness of line management structures

• Demonstrate an understanding of the benefits of training development

• Demonstrate an awareness of appropriate working dress codes

2.1 Planning your route to work

You need to make sure you have got timetables and enough money for your ticket. If you plan your route to work you will know where you are going and it will take some of the stress away of your first day. If you plan your route to work you will know what time to set off to get to work on time. If you get to work on time you will start off with a good reputation. If you are often late to work you could get the sack

If you are late for your first day you would get into trouble with your boss. You would also let your colleagues and team-mates down by being late. Not leaving enough time to get to work will make you feel stressed.

The need to allow sufficient time:

It is a good idea to rehearse your trip to work before the first day. You should allow enough time for your breakfast, having a wash or shower, collecting the right money or remembering your bus pass or travel card. Leave extra time in case something goes wrong, like the bus is late for example.

2.2 First days at work

Identify concerns you might experience on your first days at work

Most people feel a little nervous when starting a new job, especially if it is your first job after leaving school or college. Nerves are normal. You might worry whether you will fit in. You might worry whether you can do the job. You might be worried about having enough money to last to your first pay day.

Employ a range of strategies to combat concerns on your first days at work.

Remember that you have been interviewed for the job and the company has decided you are the best person for the job. Find out as much as you can about your new job before you start. Find out what you need to take, such as a packed lunch, lunch money, uniform, or the right clothes to wear. Plan your route and make sure you arrive on time. Make sure you get an early night before your first day at work and get a good breakfast. Don’t have a heavy session or a late night before starting work. Work out a sensible budget of how much money you need until you first get paid. If this is not enough talk to someone who could help, such as members of your family or friends, your Connexions worker or the Benefits Agency. If you are experiencing problems you could always talk to your new employer, they might be able to help.

2.3 Company Hierarchy

Recognise a line management structure and Identify own position in a company

When you start work you will need to find out where you fit into your new company, and who you report to. Your company may have different departments that deal with different parts of your work, such as Human Resources, Health and Safety, Training and Administration.

You will need to find out who you talk to about:

• If you are ill and need some days off work.

• You want to book some holidays.

• You require some training, such as for health and safety .

You will also need to find out if you are responsible for anybody else at work

Recognise how individuals interact within the line management structure

You will need to find out who the key people are in your new company. This will help you to behave appropriately at work. For example, if the head of the company makes a surprise visit they may expect you to be on your best behaviour.

2.4 Training and Development

Recognize that training and development includes both formal and informal approaches

In your new job you may receive two types of training:

Formal training, which could include first aid, health and safety, and career development.

Informal training is where you learn from colleagues and might include how to use particular equipment, or how to do particular tasks.

Identify appropriate training tasks to meet a specific need.

Find out from your supervisor or boss what training you may need to do your job properly.

Find out what training is available to do your job better and improve your chances.

One of the most important pieces of training you may need is Health and Safety. Your employer should give you Health and Safety training when you start work. There are certain things that you must be aware of to keep yourself and others safe in your job. These are:

• You must take reasonable care for your own health and safety and that of others

• You must co-operate with your employer on health and safety.

• If you have been given protective clothing (for example gloves, hard hats and shoes) you must wear them.

• If you have to use equipment in your job, you must use it in the way you have been trained.

• If you have been given anything for your health and safety at work don’t mess around with it or break it.

• If you have any questions on health and safety in your job, first ask your boss, or – if you have one – your safety representative or trade union representative.

If you need more information on Health and safety training you can look on the Internet at the Health and Safety Executive website.

There are many other sites available, type ‘health and safety training at work’ into your search engine and this will lead you to some useful information.

2.5 Dress Codes

Recognize the need for appropriate clothing for work and identify appropriate clothing for a range of working environments.

You could have got clues on how to dress if you went for an interview. How did other workers in the company dress? How you dress at an interview can be very different from how you would normally dress for work. You should always dress smartly for an interview even if the job required you to wear different clothes. If you are told what to wear for work or given a uniform, then there is no problem as long as you stick to it.

Some companies will expect you to dress in a particular way.

This could be because: -

1) It is what customers expect such as in a restaurant or shop.

2) It could be the type of business such as a bank or an office.

3) Hygiene reasons such as food preparation or health work.

4) For your own safety - like on a building site or factory.

If you are not sure what you should wear for your new job it is a good idea to ask them, perhaps at the interview.

Identify the direct effect of clothing on working situation

Wearing the right clothes will help you fit in and feel comfortable. The right clothes will also help you stay safe, protect you and allow you to do your job properly.

Unit 3 -Your Rights and Responsibilities at Work

Learning Objectives:

• Demonstrate an awareness of your legal rights and responsibilities

• Demonstrate an awareness of what your wage entitlement is and how this is affected by training

• Demonstrate an awareness of your rights and responsibilities related to your employment or work experience

• Demonstrate an awareness of a complaints procedure if they are treated unfairly.

Your Rights at Work

3.1 Working Hours and holiday entitlements

Identify legal entitlement to holidays and statutory holidays

You are entitled to holidays from work and don’t let your new employer tell you otherwise, or that this just happens in other jobs but not yours. The basic rights and protections that the Government Regulations provide are:

• A limit of an average of 48 hours a week that a worker can be required to work (though workers can choose to work more if they want to).

• A limit of an average of 8 hours work in 24 which night workers can be required to work.

• A right for night workers to receive free health assessments.

• A right to 11 hours rest a day.

• A right to a day off each week.

• A right to an in-work rest break if the working day is longer than 6 hours.

• A right to 4 weeks paid leave per year.

Recognize that there is a work time directive

These rights are called your ‘Work Time Directive’. There are special rights if you are young when you start work. Young workers may not ordinarily work more than: 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week These hours worked cannot be averaged out over a number of weeks and you cannot choose yourself to opt-out of these. You may work longer hours where this is necessary to either:

• maintain continuity of service or production, or

• respond to a surge in demand for a service or product, and provided that:

• there is no adult available to perform the task

• the training needs of the young worker are not adversely affected (For example, it does not cause you to miss your health and safety training).

If you are a young worker who is employed on ships or have joined the armed forces you will probably be required to work longer than these limits.

You can look up current information on working hours and holidays on the internet at: http://www.dti.gov.uk/employment/employment-legislation/working-time-regs/index.html

3.2 Minimum Wage Laws

Identify your minimum wage entitlement

The national minimum wage means all workers are treated fairly. It sets hourly rates of pay below which your pay must not fall. The National Minimum Wage has increased again in October 2005.

The minimum wage is your legal right if you are above the school leaving age. There are different minimum wage rates for different groups of workers:

• The main rate is for workers aged 22 and over. On 1 October 2005 this rate was raised to £5.05 an hour, from £4.85.

• The accredited training rate is for workers aged 22 and over who are receiving accredited training in the first six months of a job with a new employer. On 1 October 2005 this rate of the minimum wage was raised to £4.25 an hour, from £4.10.

• The development rate is for 18-21 year olds. On 1 October 2005 rate of minimum wage was raised to £4.25 an hour, from £4.10.

• The development rate for 16-17 years olds. This rate is £3.00 an hour.

NB: 16 and 17 year old apprentices are exempt from the young workers rate.

Identify sources of information related to current minimum wage levels Minimum wage allowances change from time to time. The minimum wage might have changed since these figures were published. Don’t worry - if you need more information on Minimum Wage Laws you can look on the Internet. A useful site is:

http://www.dti.gov.uk/employment/pay/national-minimum-wage/index.html

If these sites are not working, type ‘Minimum Wage Laws’ into your search engine and this will lead you to some useful information.

3.3 Basic Rights at work

The learner will recognize the need for a contract of employment and a wage slip.

A contract of employment is an agreement between you and your employer. It will tell you things like how many hours you are to work a week, what work you are expected to do, how much holiday you will get and what your wages will be.

It is important that you get a contract of employment because it will make sure that you are treated fairly. It will also explain what your responsibilities to the company are.

A wage slip shows you how much you have earned, how many hours you have worked and what tax and other deductions have already been taken from your pay. These are important if you have a disagreement with your employer and you should keep these somewhere safe.

The learner will be able to identify their employment terms and conditions, including grievance procedures

When you start your job you should be treated fairly. When you start work, you are entitled to:

• A pay slip to show much you earn and any deductions made from your pay.

• A minimum wage

• Working time rights – this means you are entitled to breaks, holidays and a maximum number of hours you should work per week

• Equal pay with members of the opposite sex, race or disability if they are doing the same job as you

• Not be discriminated against for reasons of your sex, race or any disability

• Work in a place which is safe

If you do have a disagreement with your employer, such as you think you have been underpaid or you have been asked to do something which you don’t think is safe, you can make a complaint. This is known as a grievance procedure and your company should

have a copy of this that you can read.

It is always worth trying to talk first to your line manager or supervisor if you have a grievance.

3.4 How and who to complain to

To be able to recognise unfair treatment and identify whom to raise a complaint with you will often be asked to do things you don’t like, but this might be part of your job.

Unfair treatment might be things like:

• Being bullied.

• Being disadvantaged because of your race, sex, religion, disability or ethnicity.

• Being asked to do something which is not safe.

• Being asked to so something other people who do the same job have not been asked to do.

If you feel that you are being treated unfairly talk it through with somebody in the company first, and if you are not satisfied then you may need to speak to someone who is independent such as a trade union representative or the Citizens Advice Bureau.

Use assertive techniques to make their point

Sometimes when you think you may have been treated unfairly, you might feel angry and over-react. Showing aggression will not usually get you what you want and may cause problems for you in your job.

You may be able to use some of the following ideas on assertiveness to help you get your point across if you think you have been unfairly treated:

• being clear about what you feel about your treatment, what you need and how it can be achieved

• being able to say why you feel you have been treated unfairly in a calm way without attacking the other person

• being able to talk openly about yourself and being able to listen to others

• having confident, open body language

• being able to give and receive positive and negative feedback

• having a positive, optimistic outlook

Quest Discussion Topics.

Discuss the reasons for making a good impression to a prospective employer. How can we do this? Where else may a young person receive advice on employment opportunities? What provision is there in your institution to help with getting a job?

Why do companies give new employees an induction? When working in a dangerous environment what other aspects does the employee need knowledge of? (E.g. Health and safety). The incorrect complaints on Salty’s list are not valid, why?

Where else other than a union can employees go to get help, both inside the company environment and out? Why do companies have a line management structure? When may it be reasonable to go outside that structure when making a complaint (i.e. if you have already gone through the correct channels with no satisfaction or your complaint is against your line manager? There may also be someone better qualified to assess the situation rather than your line manager such as the health and safety representative.)

Why is it important to know your rights? What should you do if these rights are constantly infringed? Should an employee ALWAYS stick rigidly to these rights in EVERY case? Can an employee on occasions voluntarily “go that extra mile” for their employers.

Just as important as employee’s rights is the responsibility to the employer. What may some of these responsibilities be?

When might it be fair to treat an employee differently from their colleagues? Why?
Discuss who might need different treatment in order to achieve fairness.

IMPROVING LEARNING AND TEACHING WITH ICT, E-LEARNING AND E-GAMES – a review of some recent literature

Although there are variations in levels of resourcing of ICT equipment in different settings, computers are now widely available to teachers and learners. At the highest levels of resourcing, every learner has appropriate access to a computer, whether a desktop, laptop or handheld device. And learning resources are widely available from the Internet, or the school/college learning platform or virtual learning environment. Even where ICT provision is relatively poor, learners and practitioners have access to a network and productivity tools. Many institutions, if not classrooms, also now have access to an interactive whiteboard or large-screen display that can be used for exposition and demonstration or subject-specific learning.

In other words, the tools are increasingly there. Teachers’ skills and confidence in using ICT are also developing, although the fast-changing nature of technology itself means that ‘ICT confidence’ is not a fixed goal. Online or digital resources for learning and teaching are also developing – content that can be up to date and adapted by teachers – but we are still some way off the situation where teachers automatically look to the Internet or intranet to find resources to support their lessons. At the same time, learners’ expectations of using ICT are rising, often driven by the sophisticated applications of ICT that they have at home. It is no longer a question of justifying the use of ICT in the classroom, but increasingly a question of needing to justify when it is not being used to support learning.

ICT and pedagogy – a review of the research literature (2003) describes three approaches taken by teachers in their use of ICT:

• An integrated approach, where the use of ICT is planned within the subject to enhance particular skills and concepts

• An enhancement approach, where an ICT resource is the focus, and is used to enhance some aspect of the lesson, or tasks

• A complementary approach whereby an ICT resource is used to empower students’ learning and reduce the mundane and repetitive aspects of tasks.

Increasingly, as use of ICT becomes integrated with classroom practice, teachers may use ICT in any (or all three) ways, not only during the course of a day but also during a single lesson. However, the report also says that ‘If ICT is to have a positive effect on pupils’ attainment, then the technology should support the underlying instructional approaches’, and that teachers need ‘significant time to develop their pedagogy as well as their ICT skills’.

A growing body of research on ICT use is indicating improved attainment for learners in general and, for learners with some types of special needs, not only improvements but access to a curriculum at all. Although harder to measure, there appear to be widespread gains in learners’ motivation and, again, for some learners who are out of school through medical needs, exclusion or a peripatetic life style, ICT is enabling them to maintain their education.

We are still, however, some way from being able to identify a systemic change in teaching brought about by ICT. While there are examples of individual practitioners using ICT to outstanding effect, and of institutions where ICT use is embedded in teaching, learning and administration, the overall picture indicates that the widespread benefits of ICT have yet to be realised in many settings.

In seeking to improve learning and teaching with ICT, the British Educational and Communication Technology Association (Becta) is focusing on three areas: approaches, tools and content. In Becta’s view, teachers will only adopt pedagogical approaches if these three areas:

• Enable effective learning

• Match the curriculum

• Support inclusive practice

• Promote learner engagement

• Offer innovative ways of supporting the curriculum and pedagogic development

• Support and reinforce the use of formative assessment techniques.

Becta believes that learning, teaching and institutional use of ICT can benefit every learner. For it to do so, however, requires a strategic approach from Becta and its partners.

Teachers, tutors, mentors and coaches need to receive coherent messages and support. The self-review framework (which will be available in spring 2006 for schools and for colleges in autumn 2006) will provide this coherence. The framework will ensure that approaches focus both on the practitioner and the leadership team, and provide a national benchmark for progression and improvement.

The learning and teaching element of the self-review framework for schools will promote:

• Planned use of ICT, with ICT embedded in schemes of work, taking account of learner needs and institutional context

• Extended use across all curricular areas

• A focus on quality of use, where ICT brings real value to the learning

• A critical evaluation of learner use and also of staff practice in relation to reflective practice

• Effective leadership of the use of ICT in learning and teaching

• An evaluation strategy for the overall impact of ICT across the institution.

E-Learning and E-Games

Here we briefly consider one specific aspect of the use of technology in the teaching and learning environment, namely that of the value of computer games or “edutainment” as an effective means of engaging learners and imparting knowledge. Why should you consider the use of e-games?

Below we present some of the arguments for and against the usefulness of computer games in encouraging learning.

FOR

Computer games engage people and through a rich visual and spatial aesthetics can be very seductive by drawing people into a fantasy world that can seem very real, due to the fact that computer games can incorporate as many as 36 important learning principles. For example players are put in the role of decision maker, which challenges and stimulates a skill that individuals need to develop in respect to the world of work. Crucially individuals playing get instant feedback which is vital for learners.

In respect to lifelong learning, simulation games afford a realistic framework to use up to date technologies as a means to an end which can prepare learners for the world of work. Interpersonal relationships can be explored and therefore encourage cooperative and competitive behaviour, and ultimately stimulate post game discussion.

Outstanding gaming expertise is linked to ‘expert’ behaviours such as self-monitoring, pattern recognition, problem solving, principled decision making, qualitive thinking and superior short-term and long-term memory (VanDeventer and White 2002)

AGAINST

It is argued that the frequent use of computer games can exacerbate negative psycho-social tendencies such as social isolation and violence. There use maybe addictive and also have health implications. For someone to benefit from the game the individual will have to have a certain skill level already.

Teacher bias towards certain teaching/learning methods can affect the effectiveness of the game in encouraging learning. Learning objectives may not be congruent with the games objectives, games can also distract from learning as players concentrate on completing, scoring and winning and games require the suspension of belief. What seems like a game to one person will feel like work to another.

Areas of Work/Discussion

• What are the benefits of using e-games?

• How can the use of e-learning /e-games be used it stimulate and encourage learning?

• How can the learning be maximised and therefore give the skills required for the world of work?

• How can any negative aspects of e-games be minimised and therefore not detract from the learning environment?

• What examples are there of effective e-games that stimulated and enhanced skills, especially those skills needed for the workplace?

APPENDICES

Additional Information - National Strategies and Policies:

1 - Social Exclusion and the Transition from Education to Employment:

What is Social Exclusion?

The Social Exclusion Unit’s (SEU) report ‘Breaking the Cycle’ defines Social Exclusion as follows: -

Social exclusion is about more than income poverty. It is a shorthand term for what can happen when people or areas face a combination of linked problems such as unemployment, discrimination, poor skills, low incomes, poor housing, high crime, bad health and family breakdown. These problems are linked and mutually reinforcing so that they can create a vicious cycle in people’s lives.

Social exclusion is thus a consequence of what happens when people do not get a fair deal throughout their lives, and this is often linked to the disadvantage they face at birth.

The main causes and consequences of social exclusion are: poverty and low income; unemployment; poor educational attainment; poor mental or physical health; family breakdown and poor parenting; poor housing and homelessness; discrimination; crime; and living in a disadvantaged area. The risk factors for social exclusion tend to cluster in certain neighbourhoods, but not everybody at risk lives in a deprived area.

Poverty and social exclusion can also pass from one generation to the next. For example, experiencing poverty in childhood and having parents who did not gain qualifications at school or college are powerful influences on a child’s life, often continuing to affect their life chances as they get older.

The report looks at the Government’s programme: to help those suffering from multiple disadvantage who may therefore be excluded from society and; to promote equality of opportunity in all our communities for those who do not have the opportunities that others take for granted.

Children’s life chances are still strongly affected by the circumstances of their parents. The social class a child is born into and their parents’ level of education and health are still major determinants of their life chances and mean that social exclusion and disadvantage can pass from generation to generation.

Some of the most important factors that influence a child’s life chances are education and skills, child poverty, financial assets, social capital, discrimination and childhood ill-health. Concentrating effort on reducing inequality in these areas is likely to yield the greatest results in promoting equality of opportunity and preventing the transmission of social exclusion from one generation to the next.

Government polices aim to help to promote greater equality of opportunity for children and to bring about improvements in the absolute levels of disadvantage faced by many families. However, significant inequalities remain and tackling intergenerational disadvantage by promoting greater equality of opportunity remains a key challenge for policy. Educational inequalities in Britain remain some of the widest in Europe. Other trends, such as a less equal distribution of assets and wealth, are also working against equality of opportunity.

A number of polices are in place to improve life chances for the most disadvantaged groups. The Government has recognised that the early years are the most effective time to intervene, but high quality family support and pre-school services are not yet available to all families who need it.

Continued support throughout childhood is also important in promoting life chances for the most disadvantaged. This is particularly the case at important transition points that can shape an individual’s subsequent opportunities, for example entry to secondary school and the move from education to the labour market. We need to provide more support to children and families in the early years and at key transition points throughout their journey to adulthood.

Helping the Most Disadvantaged

The most disadvantaged people tend not to use services and benefits as much as others do, or to gain from them as much when they do. The evidence for this is clearest among the New Deal employment programmes, where people with the most disadvantages have been least likely to participate or to get jobs as a result. However, there is a similar pattern of uneven progress in other fields.

Although there are a lot of groups with complex needs, there are three main broad and overlapping groups of people for whom policies consistently seem less effective.

• People with physical or mental health problems.

• Those who lack skills or qualifications, both formal qualifications and broader basic and life skills.

• People from some ethnic minority groups, including asylum seekers and refugees.

It may be the severity and specificity of the multiple needs each very disadvantaged person faces that make it difficult for some current public services to help them. However, unless policy is able to address the needs of disadvantaged groups, the overall risk of social exclusion may be reduced, but people in most need will be left further behind. The Government recognizes that we need to improve service design and delivery to extend the reach of what works to those who need it most.

Delivery: What Works

Current ways of delivering services can make it difficult for disadvantaged people to take them up or benefit from available provision. Services may not be accessible, may not be perceived as appropriate or may not meet clients’ complex needs. Service deliverers may lack the flexibility, time and resources to meet the needs of more disadvantaged clients and performance measures may not be sensitive enough to recognise the progress people

make as steps towards longer term outcomes.

We know that a client-centred approach is critical, with individually tailored help and support that can address different sets of multiple needs through multi-agency work. Having personal advisers who help individuals understand what services and benefits are available and who can negotiate access to a range of options has been successful in developing a more client-centred approach. However, personal advisers need to have flexibility, be able to call on a range of support, have the skills to work with people to determine how best to deal with complex needs, and be able to build up a trusting and collaborative relationship.

User involvement in the design and delivery of services, and closer working with voluntary and community groups can help make them more relevant. Increased devolution and delegation gives service providers the flexibility to design and develop services around local needs. Services need to be accessible at times and locations that clients can make, and they need to be culturally appropriate and free of stigma. The Government acknowledges that we need to find ways to roll out these approaches much more widely through mainstream services.

The report confirms that new technologies offer the potential for services to tackle social exclusion better but they also have the potential to create a digital divide. There may continue to be divisions between those who have access and those who do not but, without measures to educate users, there will also be divisions between those who exploit it fully and those who do not.

The SEU’s report; ‘Transitions’ highlights this by offering the following information:

Young Adults: Key Statistics

In autumn 2004, there were around 5.5 million people aged between 16 and 24 in England. Of these, around 750,000 were not in employment, education or training. Up to 20 per cent of 16-24 year-olds have a mental health issue, mostly anxiety and depression. 16-24 year old females are the most likely group to be victims of domestic violence within their own relationships and young men aged between 16 and 24 were most at risk of being a victim of violent crime (2003/04). Over a 12-month period, nearly a third of 16 to 17 year-old males reported committing a violent crime. A third of all problem drug users are homeless or in need of housing support and a third drop out of treatment within the first 12 weeks.

The report Breaking the Cycle1 recognises that young people’s lives change rapidly and dramatically between the ages of 16 and 25. A move towards independence – the transition to adulthood – generally occurs during this time. During the transition there is an increasing need to access services personally rather than through parents or carers. There is often a greater need for services and advice as well because the decisions young people make during this time – particularly on education and work – can affect the rest of their lives.

Young people with severe or multiple needs in areas such as homelessness, substance misuse, offending or mental health will need access to a range of services in order to address the range of problems. But too often services will approach someone’s problems as individual issues rather than looking at them as interlinked. As a result, individuals can find themselves pushed from pillar to post on unpredictable and repetitive journeys around different agencies and on a downward spiral of social exclusion. Such people will struggle to progress into independent, fulfilling adulthood.

Young adults report a wide range of barriers that get in the way of them seeking or getting help with their problems. Barriers exist in particular for young people with a range of problems that need a range of interventions from services that may not work well together.

B
reaking the Cycle recognised that services which are restricted to a particular age group often work against the principle that resources should follow need. For example, the Connexions Service is available to young people up to the age of 19 (or longer for those with Special Educational Needs). However, those they consulted felt that many other vulnerable young people would value such support into their twenties. Similarly, 16 and 17 year-olds may receive inappropriate mental health services. They can find themselves falling between adolescent and adult services and losing continuity in treatment as a result, a situation which is equally applicable to social services. “The problems associated with youth transitions do not conclude at neat, age specific points and therefore age-related policies...do not fit harmoniously with the realities of the extended transitions that our sample members have undertaken” Poor Transitions, Social Exclusion and Young Adults, Webster et al, December 2004

More Key Statistics:

• Over 1 million people in Great Britain aged between 16 and 24 are not in education, employment or training.

• Young men are the most likely victims of violent crime. They are also the most likely perpetrators of crime.

• It is estimated that nearly half of all 16- to 24-year-olds in England and Wales have used illicit drugs. Reported Class A drug use amongst 20- to 24-year-olds is three times higher than that in the general population.

• Suicide is the cause of a quarter of the deaths amongst 16- to 24-year-old men.

• Over 90 per cent of imprisoned young offenders have at least one, or combination of, the following: personality disorder, psychosis, neurotic disorder, or substance misuse.

• Substance misuse affects around a third to a half of people with severe mental health problems.

• Homelessness is frequently associated with substance misuse problems; and being homeless almost trebles a young person’s chance of developing a mental health problem.

Education

• Although great improvements have been made in educational attainment with both A-Level and GCSE results rising each year, the improvements in average performance mask the UK’s long tale of academic underachievement.

• Turkey and Mexico are the only OECD countries with fewer 18-year-olds enrolled in education than the UK.

• Forty-one percent of people aged between 20 and 29 only have relatively low-level qualifications (below Level 3, the equivalent of A-level). A quarter (24 per cent) has either a Level 1 qualification or none at all.

• Having no or low-level qualifications is detrimental to your employment chances later in life. For example, only half of adults with no qualifications are employed compared to about 80 per cent of those with a Level 2 qualification (equivalent to five A*-C GCSEs) and nearer 90 per cent for those with a university level qualification

Employment

• Around 200,000 16- to 17-year-olds and 900,000 18- to 24-yearolds are not in work or full-time education. This represents about 1 in 8 of all 16- to 17- year-olds and just fewer than 1 in 5 of all 18- to 24-year-olds.

Health and Disability

• Young adults often overlook their own health – it’s something they think they can take for granted. However, around a quarter of all young people aged between 16 and 24 report a long-standing illness and disabled young people can face particular problems.

• Low self-esteem and a lack of concern about the consequences of actions can result in young people neglecting their health and taking part in risky behaviour, such as drug and alcohol misuse and unsafe sex. Young people have higher rates of sexually transmitted infections than the general population and a large number of young adults face mental health problems: up to 20 per cent of all 16- to 24-year-olds have a mental health issue and suicide is the cause of a quarter of all deaths amongst 16- to 24-year-old men.

Crime

• Young men are the most likely victims of violent crime and the most likely perpetrators of crime. Eighteen to 20-year-olds constitute 42 per cent of all first time offenders and three-quarters of male offenders aged between 18 and 21 re-offend within two years.

• The young adult prison population is growing. Between 1994 and 2004 the number of young adult men in prison rose by over 20 per cent and the numbers of women in custody aged between 18 and 20 almost doubled.

• Compared to juvenile prisoners (those aged between 15 and 17), young adult prisoners (aged between 18 and 20) suffer from a lack of focus and resources:

Anti-Social Behaviour

• Anti-social behaviour is often associated with young people: youth anti-social behaviour tends to be frequently reported in the media and therefore highly visible – research shows that 17 per cent of respondents said that rowdy teenagers and young people ‘hanging around’ was the biggest anti-social behaviour problem where they lived. Between 1 June 2000 and 31 December 2004, 1,496 ASBOs (Anti-Social Behaviour orders) were issued to 15- to 17-year-olds compared with 2,405 issued to people aged over 18.

• Alcohol is widely used amongst 16- to 25-year-olds. By the age of 16 nearly all young people (94 per cent) have tried alcohol and men aged between 16 and 24 are the heaviest drinking section of the population. A study of dependency amongst young adults found that nearly 15 per cent of 16-25 year olds are dependant on alcohol and people aged 16-24 are more likely than all other age groups to ‘binge drink’. Binge drinkers are more likely to be men, although women’s drinking has been rising fast over the last ten years. In 1998 38 per cent of young females were estimated to consume 6 or more units on their heaviest drinking day. In 2002 the corresponding proportion had risen to 52 per cent.

Social Care

• Young people who have experienced institutional care are significantly more at risk of social exclusion than other young people; they are much more likely to leave school without qualifications, end up in prison and to become homeless. These costs also impact on society: if young people leaving care had the same patterns of activity as their peers in relation to education, employment and training, the savings over three years would be £300 million.

• Those young people aged 16 and over who do not meet the threshold for being ‘In care’ but are in need of support can be helped by their local authority but accessing support at this age, however severe the situation, remains, for many, very difficult. They may be in need of support for a range of reasons, including: disability; parental illness or disability; or socially unacceptable behaviour. A survey of all local authorities found that in one week in February 2003 there were 27,000 young people in need of support.

Rural Disadvantage

Living in a rural area can compound the above listed disadvantage young people face. For example, 30 per cent of the rural population is under 25 - 29 and young people living in these areas can struggle to access the services they need, such as college, healthcare and work. They have to travel more than 40 per cent further than their urban counterparts each week because services and facilities are likely to be further away.

Young people without access to a car face even more problems. The affordability and availability of public transport limits young people’s ability to get to where they need to go. The relative lack of anonymity in rural areas can also mean that young adults are more likely to hide their problems or less likely to access services which address their disadvantage. It may also be harder to access information about services.

Funding for agencies, linked to deprivation factors, can also be hard to access, especially where significant pockets of deprivation are masked by affluence in the surrounding area.

Ethnic Minority Groups

Preventing Social Exclusion32 shows how some ethnic minority communities are disproportionately exposed to the risk of social exclusion. For example:

• They are more likely than others to live in deprived areas and in unpopular and overcrowded housing;

• They are more likely to be poor and to be unemployed, regardless of age, sex, qualifications and place of residence;

• Pakistani, Bangladeshi and African-Caribbean people are more likely to report suffering ill-health than white people; and

• As a group, people from ethnic minorities are as well qualified as white people, but some black and Asian groups do not do as well at school as others.

• In the area of education, marked differences can be identified between some ethnic groups. For example, in spite of recent improvements in school exclusion statistics for African-Caribbean children, they are still around three times more likely to be permanently excluded from school than white pupils.

Risk factors

A great deal of research has focused on the types of risk factors that make young people more likely to experience negative outcomes (and particularly on factors that make them likely to commit crime or engage in anti-social behaviour).

There is evidence that many different kinds of poor outcomes share the same ‘risk factors’ – in other words, one disadvantage may cause or exacerbate another. Risk factors such as poor parental supervision and discipline, truancy, living in a disadvantaged neighbourhood or exclusion from school are all known to increase the risk of poor outcomes such as unemployment, criminal and anti-social activity and poor health later in life.

Linked to risk factors is the concept of resilience – a set of personal qualities that makes people more able to withstand the negative effects of particular events or circumstances. The key concepts of resilience include: strong social support networks; positive school experiences; and not being excessively sheltered from challenging situations, which provide opportunities to develop coping skills.

The transition to adulthood for some young people can be a culmination of everything that has come before – whether positive or negative. For this reason, the Government has focused policies on children and young people in recent years. Policies targeted at children under the age of 16 – for example, Sure Start (soon to be replaced with multi-agency children’s centres), Youth Inclusion and Support Panels and the Child Trust Fund – will, in later years, help reduce the need for interventions by preventing problems from occurring in the first place.

Similarly, the development of Children’s Trusts and the Every Child Matters agenda has the potential to transform outcomes for young people in later years.

The Three Themes of the Report:

Bringing together these views from young people themselves with the evidence above about young people’s outcomes, and with our own research, we have structured the rest of our report around three key themes which capture the most significant findings from our work:

● Problems associated with age boundaries.

● The benefits of holistic services and the trusted adult.

● The thinking and behaviour of young people.

Age Boundaries

Young people aged between 16 and 25 suffer disproportionately from many different types of disadvantage, including homelessness, worklessness, lack of training or education, poor health (in particular, mental and sexual health), and are at high risk of becoming involved in anti-social behaviour, drug use, and crime.

Many of these issues are thought of as the problems of teenagers – but in fact many are as bad (or worse) for those in their early twenties, on whom much less policy has been focused – the phenomenon of ‘the invisible early twenties’.

Holistic Services and the ‘trusted adult’

As well as reviewing the available research and evaluation evidence, the SEU gathered new evidence from field visits, 150 responses to a questionnaire, regional road shows and discussions with colleagues inside and outside Government. Many of those we consulted described the benefits of ‘holistic services’ with somebody to guide and advise the young person: this could be a personal adviser, key worker, mentor or an independent visitor. Such individuals can help ensure there is continuity of support, and promote trust between the young person and particular services. They can also develop relationships with local services to allow them to act as a broker for their clients, introducing them to a range of specialist provision relevant to their personal needs.

It can be daunting and confusing for some young adults to have to work with several different agencies at once. This is where effective partnerships, ‘holistic services’ such as one-stop shops where young adults can receive help and advice on a range of problems, can make a difference.

Thinking and Behaviour

Young adults’ decisions can have important ramifications. Those who drop out of education, training or work – or who drift into crime – can face severe long-term personal, social and financial consequences, as can their families. Some young people prefer instant reward to longer-term benefits. However their priorities can change as they mature. This process occurs at different stages for different people, and some find it harder than others to consider the future impact of their current actions. Disadvantaged young adults – who may have low self-esteem – can often be least equipped with the skills they need to make the choices that influence their futures. And young people living in deprived areas can face particular problems developing a long-term perspective. Policies aimed at young adults must recognize this, especially where they propose incentives to influence current behaviour.

What Young Adults Want:

The Prince’s Trust research, Reaching the Hardest to Reach, found that at the broadest level, disadvantaged young people want the same things as most young people: a family, an interesting job, and sufficient money to support their lifestyle.

However, young people were not always clear or consistent about what was standing in their way. Forty-one per cent of the sample identified that a lack of qualifications was a barrier to getting what they wanted, but of those who were themselves educational underachievers, only 33 per cent recognised that a lack of qualifications was a barrier.

There was also a gender split in the barriers identified by disadvantaged people in this particular study, and the focus shifted with age. Disadvantaged females were more likely to mention a lack of confidence, not having enough experience and being a parent (despite enjoying the time spent with their children). Disadvantaged males were more likely to mention (their own) bad behaviour. Other recent studies support the suggestion that young people often feel responsible for their own situation (even where they may not be).

Looking to the Future

Young people employ different strategies for managing their lives. These are often characterised as:

• Short-term: associated with coping and survival;

• Medium-term: an intermediary phase with time to reflect, and possibly involving some tentative risks and changes – this could be the first step towards a long-term strategy; and

• Long-term: usually an approach taken by those with a high level of competence, involving mobilising resources and support to underpin a plan.

Those most likely to take a short-term view have been found to have experienced family crisis, be in insecure circumstances and have experienced failure. Some are seeking immediate and urgent escape from untenable current circumstances, such as unhappy family lives. They therefore lack the economic, family and individual resources that would help them to be strategic and forward thinking. The result can be frequent changes of accommodation or drifting between jobs, and further experience of failure and rejection – which in turn feeds into future thinking and behaviour. Young adults in this position may need help to settle down and plan for the future.

Some young people say that at the age when they were required to make important decisions – for example, about staying in education – they were not sufficiently mature to think ahead and had no clear idea of what they wanted to do, or why higher education would help them. Over time, in the light of experience, more young people begin to take longer-term and more strategic perspectives. But planning is most likely to occur on a foundation of some success – so it can be important for troubled young people to be able to take small and reasonably risk-free early steps. There is evidence that poor motivation is as much a consequence of negative experience as a cause of it.

Fateful Moments and Risk

The literature also highlights the importance of ‘fateful moments’ in catalysing changed thinking or behaviour – moments can come when people are exposed to new experiences and new social contacts, and begin to compare their own situation with others, or are shocked into deciding that they need to change their lives. Imprisonment can sometimes act in this way; and parenthood is well-known as a trigger for desisting from various kinds of negative behaviour (from smoking to drug use to criminal activity).

Another important factor in young people’s decision-making is calculation of risk. Some activities (for example, going to university) may be much riskier for a young person from a deprived background than for others – not only involving greater cost, but possibly not bringing as much ‘soft’ parental support and encouragement, and meaning more severing of ties with friends.

Some risk is both inevitable and necessary as part of growing up; but young people need to be helped to manage risk, and offered opportunities in a form that helps them take sensible decisions – for example, using summer schools to give young people a ‘taster’ of higher education before expecting them to commit to it.

Who Shapes Thinking and Behaviour? Parents, Peers and the Community.

Young people’s views are very varied, but they are strongly influenced by their parents, peers and local community – more so than by objective evidence or careful planning.

Research suggests that young people’s decisions about education and training had little to do with formal information available, and more to do with the opinions of family and friends given by chance. Family and friends may be well equipped to give this advice; but they also may not, and for many of the most disadvantaged young people, this can result in existing disadvantage being passed on through the generations, or around a deprived community.

Principles of Service Delivery for Young Adults:

The report’s conclusions point to five key principles of service delivery for young adults. These are:

1. Actively managing the transition from youth to adult services;

2. Taking thinking and behaviour into account, and building on it;

3. Involving young adults (and their families and carers) in designing and delivering services;

4. Giving effective information about services, and sharing information between services; and

5. Offering young people a trusted adult whom can both challenge and support them.

Case Studies:

For case studies relating to these principles and examples of best practice in service delivery and support to disadvantaged young people a full copy of the two reports outlined above can be downloaded at: - http://www.socialexclusion.gov.uk

For other useful reports see resources.

Tackling Youth Crime:

Reducing youth crime and reforming the youth justice system are major elements of the Government's effort to build safer communities and tackle social exclusion.

The Government has embarked on the most radical reform of the youth justice system for 50 years. Reform focuses on preventing offending by children and young people, through:

• a clear strategy to prevent offending and re-offending by children and young people;

• helping offenders, and their parents, to face up to their offending behaviour and take responsibility for it;

• earlier, more effective intervention when young people first offend;

• faster, more efficient procedures from arrest to sentence; and

• partnership between all youth justice agencies to deliver a better, faster system.

The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 establishes preventing offending as the principal aim of the youth justice system and places a statutory duty on all those working in the youth justice system to have regard to that aim. What this means in practice for different agencies, professions and individuals is set out in the framework document ‘Youth Justice - the statutory principal aim of preventing offending by children and young people’, published in September 1998.

A New Approach to Tackling Youth Crime

The Act provides a range of interventions and punishments to help local communities and youth justice agencies take effective action to tackle youth crime.

These include powers to enable early, targeted intervention to deal with anti-social behaviour and to divert the very young from crime:

• Local child curfew schemes to protect children under the age of 10 in a particular area from getting into trouble. Under these powers, which were brought into force on 30 September 1998, local authorities may apply to the Home Office to establish a local scheme which may, for example, form part of local crime and disorder strategies required under section 6 of the Act;

• New legislation under sections 48 and 49 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 raises the upper age limit of children who may be the subject of a local child curfew to 15 and also allows the police as well as local authorities to apply for a local curfew scheme.;

• Anti-social behaviour orders to deal with serious, but not necessarily criminal, anti-social behaviour by those aged 10 and above. These powers were brought into force on 1 April 1999; and

• Powers for the police to remove truants to designated premises to allow the police, working with local authorities and schools, to tackle truancy, one of the factors that put young people at risk of offending. These powers came into force on 1 December 1998.

The Act includes new powers for the police and courts to intervene when young people do offend:

• Final warning scheme to replace police cautioning of young offenders;

• Reparation order requiring young offenders to make amends to their victim or the wider community;

• Action plan order to tackle offending behaviour and its causes;

• Parenting order to help reinforce and support parental responsibility (a parenting order may also be used in combination with an anti-social behaviour order or a child safety order); and

• Court ordered secure remands - to remand certain alleged offenders to local authority secure accommodation.

• Detention and training order to provide a constructive and flexible custodial sentence with a clear focus on preventing re-offending. New structures at local and national level have been introduced to provide the framework to tackle youth offending.

Youth offending teams bring together the staff and wider resources of the police, social services, the probation service, education and health, in the delivery of youth justice services, with the scope to involve others, including the voluntary sector.

Speeding up Justice

The Government has made it a priority to speed up justice for all young people who offend or are alleged to have offended and, in particular, to halve the average time from arrest to sentence for persistent young offenders. In 1996 the average was 142 days from arrest to sentence. It fell to 125 days on average in 1998, and to 106 days by December 1998.

There are now fast track schemes operating in most youth court areas, covering 95% of persistent young offenders. Some schemes have delivered significant improvements. The Government's aim is to ensure that every scheme succeeds in speeding up justice for persistent young offenders by ensuring that all local youth justice agencies are working together on joint improvement plans, and by ensuring that each scheme covers every stage of the process from arrest to sentence.

Young offenders are also targeted by the fast-tracking provisions in the Crime and Disorder Act designed to get offenders into court the day after charge. To help achieve this, the Crown Prosecution Service are working in police stations to help prepare the papers, and improved case management procedures have been introduced in the magistrates' courts.

Youth Action Groups

Youth Action Groups are a way in which to encourage young people to work communities. The groups encourage good citizenship and develop young people’s knowledge and understanding of problem solving, communication and teamwork through an interactive and relevant learning experience.

These groups are tackling a range of issues already identified by young people, including:

• Drugs and alcohol

• Street robbery

• Racism

• Bullying

• Environment

Much of the work is done in partnership with community safety practitioners including the local authority, schools, youth organisations and the police.

Youth Action Plus

Youth Action Plus is a multi-stranded programme whose aims include the creation of safer communities through partnership working, which supports the Youth Action Group approach. This is achieved by involving young people in promoting community safety and active citizenship, allowing them to recognise local crime and disorder issues which affect them. The programme also contributes to the development and implementation of initiatives to reduce the problems that they have already identified.

2 - The Use of New Technologies to Tackle Social Exclusion

Learning Objectives

• Demonstrate how technology can support inclusion at a system and institutional level.

• Demonstrate how ICT can promote inclusion.

Inclusion through Innovation.

This is a project to explore how information and communication technologies (ICT) can help to address the needs of disadvantaged groups. It aims to maximise the use of ICT in support of those who face multiple or entrenched problems, and to address inequalities arising between people who are able to make use of ICT and those who are not. A report on this project was published in November 2005.

This report identifies areas where most benefit might be delivered to excluded groups through the transformative power of ICT, and considers how this might be achieved. It sets out evidence of the experience and aspirations of excluded people, and proposes that we should realise the opportunity to make excluded groups the major beneficiaries of e-government, and avoid creating a ‘digital underclass’.

The report suggests that ICT can be used to address social exclusion in three main ways:

First, through strategic planning and evaluating services we can target services and develop efficient, tailored local plans to improve delivery. Excellent practice examples from Neighbourhood Renewal areas show, for example, significant improvements in crime reduction through strategic information sharing.

Second, joining up services around the needs of the person is of particular value to people who simultaneously are clients of several agencies. This is not simply a question of sharing basic information like address or personal details. It is more a matter of sharing triggers for intervention to head off crisis or decline, like the DfES Children’s Index or early warning systems for youth offenders. Developing these systems requires understanding of risk factors affecting vulnerable groups, and agreeing protocols and partnership arrangements regarding data sharing and co-ordinating actions.

Third, personal development and active inclusion in employment, social groups, and community participation can all be helped by technology. For example, telecare technology can be used to help older or disabled people to maintain their independence and quality of life in their own homes and communities. Websites such as ‘NetMums’, provide information, support and advice to combat isolation and empower parents including those who live on deprived estates.

BECTA

Becta is the Government's lead partner in the strategic development and delivery of its e-strategy for the schools and the learning and skills sectors. Becta provides strategic leadership in the innovative and effective use of ICT to enable the transformation of learning, teaching and educational organisations for the benefit of every learner and there are many documents it has published on the subject of the benefits of ICT in education. These include:

ICT and Inclusion (Becta 2006)

Becta believes that ICT has the power to transform the educational opportunities and life chances of people with disabilities and special educational needs.

The term inclusion is used in a wide variety of contexts. For some it focuses on social inclusion, or on equal opportunities in all areas of life, whilst for others it underpins the need to overcome inequities such as the digital divide. In the context of physical, sensory or cognitive disabilities, it is closely connected with issues of equal access, while for minority ethnic groups, inclusion is interconnected with concepts of diversity. In all these contexts ICT can support both individuals and groups, and break down some of the barriers that lead to educational exclusion, disaffection and under-achievement. ICT can be both a medium and a powerful tool in supporting inclusive practice.

ICT is a valuable tool that can be an aid to supporting people who are socially excluded but how it is best used can be open to debate. ICT has a clear role in enabling access for everyone to information and resources, especially those individuals for whom assistive technology is their only means of access. The problem can arise when access to equipment is limited, a challenge that can be addressed. The government has shown its commitment to achieving the maximum benefit from technology as outlined in its e-strategy.

While the use of ICT may not be explicitly promoted as an answer to the challenges outlined in these policies, there is a growing awareness that access to technology and the resources it offers is a powerful tool for inclusion – and that inequitable access to technology may exclude vulnerable individuals and groups even further.

There are a number of strategies that have been published that look at these issues for example Harnessing Technology (2005) provides a coherent strategy for the use of ICT in the delivery of education in all sectors. One of the four aims of the strategy is to ‘Engage ‘hard to reach’ learners, with special needs support, more motivating ways of learning, and more choice about how and where to learn’.

The strategy has a strong emphasis on harnessing technology to meet the needs of all learners by providing innovation and consistently reliable services for all, but also by recognizing that some learners may need extra support or resource.

Personalised learning to meet individuals’ needs is emphasised with developments such as personal learning spaces and e-portfolios.

Connecting the UK: the Digital Strategy

This strategy aspires to make the UK a world leader in digital excellence and the first nation to close the digital divide. Included are details of a national scheme to give more secondary school pupils the opportunity to use ICT at home and a range of measures to improve accessibility to technology for the digitally excluded and ease of use for the disabled.

It has powerful aspirations and its scope goes beyond education and children’s services to the whole community: Technology has an important role and huge potential as an enabler to help bridge the existing barriers to inclusion – either by improving access to information, connecting disparate communities together or by empowering service providers to deliver joined up services to those with multiple problems. There is considerable evidence of the benefits of access to a PC and the Internet at home or in the community for the excluded.

Becta has wide-ranging evidence of technology supporting inclusion at a system and institutional level. The process of assessing needs, providing personalised learning programmes and recording progress and achievement are some of the essential tools for the creation of the inclusive learning institution. ICT makes the regular formative and summative assessment of learners manageable to the teacher and accessible across the institution and beyond. The e-confident school will provide each learner with a profile to let them safely access their personal learning space which is set up to recognise their particular requirements, including their access needs. The Becta publication ‘Extending the boundaries of learning’ provides good examples of such practice.

Becta is monitoring a number of initiatives aiming to include pupils who, for whatever reason, may be learning outside school. It could be a result of disaffection, long-term illness or pregnancy, for example, but in all cases technology can provide a learning environment that is both motivational and inclusive in terms of participation and achievement even though the presence may be virtual.

However, it is Becta’s view that the provision of technology alone will never fully capitalise on the opportunity ICT offers without the understanding and skill of the teachers in planning its implementation. Becta believes that there is a need for a clear understanding of the pedagogy of ICT and inclusive education by all those supporting children’s welfare and education and those working in lifelong learning, at all levels. All initiatives seeking to extend the use of ICT in education now recognise that the teacher needs to be competent and confident in the use of technology, that the technology needs to be robust and sufficiently powerful to do the job, and that high-quality content should be available. All these areas have particular issues when it comes to technology that supports inclusion in its broadest sense.

Areas of work/discussion

What ICT resources are there and how easy are they to access?

4 - Avoiding Crime

It is debatable how much can be achieved in this subject area by group work and discussion alone. It may be useful to work closely with youth workers and using the resource list for youth crime prevention and support agencies, such as the Princes Trust to make use of external expertise in this vital but difficult subject area. However, discussion can be used to reinforce the messages of these experts and in support of courses and programmes in citizenship. Sensitivity to the background of your students will be needed and, needless to say, a judgemental approach must be avoided at all times.

Learning Objectives:

• Demonstrate understanding of consequences of crime

• Demonstrate understanding of why laws are necessary and positive

• Demonstrate understanding of effects of crime on other people

The consequences of crime – both sides of the consequences can be examined here. What are the realities of serving a prison sentence? Methodologies for covering this topic might include discussion, role-play and drama to explore the effects of exclusion from friends and family, from society, isolation and boredom and the harsh realities of the prison environment.

Why laws are needed – group discussion can identify laws they consider to be positive, how laws have changed with society’s development (drugs laws, traffic laws etc), what would happen in a society without rules etc. Discussions can include – are laws there to punish or protect? Would you view the law differently if you were a victim? Let the group be judge and jury for a day and run various cases from television or the news past them – what punishment would they order to fit the crime?

What are the effects of crime on others? Case studies, newspaper and media coverage, role-play and drama can be used to explore what it is like to be the victim of different types of crime. What is the ripple effect on those beyond the immediate victim? Writing a TV drama or play and performing it can be a powerful tool to get this message over but case studies of real victims can be even more effective (joyriding, mugging etc) but need to be dealt with sensitively.

4 - Resources and Agencies:

General Resources and Agencies

Social Exclusion Unit: – The Prime minister set up the social exclusion unit in 1997. Since then the Unit has been tasked with addressing some of society’s most difficult problems. The work of the unit includes specific projects for specific issues and wide ranging programmes to assess past policy and identify future trends.

From this site you can download both the Breaking the Cycle and Transitions –Young Adults with Complex Needs reports.

The Princes Trust is a UK charity, founded by Prince Charles in 1976, who remains its patron. It is a UK charity that helps young people overcome barriers and get their lives working. The charity offers practical support through training, mentoring and financial assistance and focuses its efforts on those who are disadvantaged and have struggled at school, been in care, in trouble with the law or are long-term unemployed. It runs personal development programmes, school programmes and business start-up programmes.

Reaching the Hardest to Reach – is available from www.princes-trust.org.uk, priced £20. This is a summary of the results of the biggest consultation exercise the organization has ever carried out with 14 – 25 year olds and describes the barriers (perceived and real) they face and where they go to find the support to overcome them.

Shaw Trust is a national charity that provides training and work opportunities for people who are disadvantaged in the labour market due to disability, ill health or other social circumstances.

National Council for Voluntary Youth Services - NCVYS is the independent voice of the voluntary youth sector in England. A diverse network of over 160 national voluntary youth organisations and regional and local youth networks, NCVYS has been working since 1936 to support voluntary and community organisations that work with young people. The NCVYS co-ordinates through its members, 500,000 paid and voluntary workers who provide direct support to approximately five million young people.

They aim to inform and influence public policy that impacts at local, regional and national level on young people and their voluntary and community organisations.

Within this they run the youth participation and action pays programmes that aim to demonstrate that young people also need the opportunity to have their voices heard and to make decisions for themselves and take charge in issues that concern them. The programme works in partnership with young people, by listening to their opinions and concerns, to ensure that services meet their needs and that society can benefit from their contributions

Learning Skills Councils offers work-based training, E2E (entry to employment) programmes and modern apprenticeships – see local sites for providers and programmes running in your area.

E2E programmes seek to engage those young people who are not ready to or cannot participate in formal learning. Provider staff work with those young people on all of the 'issues' raised throughout this report – e.g. if necessary organising housing and working directly with young people to make changes to their substance use or dealing with their anger management, offending behaviour etc. Much of this work, which is beyond the funded remit of the programme, is essential in providing the necessary element of stability to their client lives, without which it is unlikely that engagement in a formal learning process would take place. The taught element of the E2E programme builds on this initial engagement and seeks to offer a positive learning experience, building confidence and providing valuable work-related skills, which will encourage progression to further learning or employment.

Connexions offer personal advisors, information advice and guidance to all 13-19 year olds, supporting the transition process from education to employment or further learning.

ASDAN is a pioneering curriculum development organisation and an internationally recognised awarding body, which grew out of research work at the University of the West of England in the 1980s. ASDAN offers a wide range of curriculum programmes and qualifications for all abilities, mainly in the 11-25 age group. ASDAN is a unique and successful initiative that has been developed and managed by teachers and lecturers, alongside a dedicated and highly efficient administrative team.

ASDAN was formally established as an educational charity in 1991. The stated purpose of the charity is "to promote the personal and social development of learners through the achievement of ASDAN Awards, so as to enhance their self esteem, their aspirations and their contribution to the community".

ASDAN programmes and qualifications blend activity-based curriculum enrichment with a framework for the development, assessment and accreditation of key skills and other personal and social skills, with emphasis on negotiation, co-operation and rewarding achievement.

Department for Education and Skills (DFES ) – www.dfes.gov.uk/ The Department for Education and Skills was established with the purpose of creating opportunity, releasing potential and achieving excellence for all. Here you can download section 96 and 97 for an overview of accredited learning that includes personal development, citizenship and employment preparation courses for young people.

Teachernet provides a resource base for teachers with links to major strategic and policy papers, links to other agencies and resources etc.

Resources on Technology and Engaging Youth.

Centre for New Technologies Research in Education (CeNTRE) opened in October 1998 as a leading centre for teaching, development and research in Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust This schools network website provides a huge range of information, advice and resources for affiliated members.

Learning and Skills Development Agency - LSDA has evolved into two separate organisations. Its policy and strategic work have moved to the Quality Improvement Agency for Lifelong Learning (QIA) - a new NDPB responsible for quality improvement across the learning and skills sector. LSDA programmes, research, training and consultancy projects continuing after April 2006 are being delivered by the Learning and Skills Network. - The use of computer and video games in learning (.PDF format)

BECTA - Becta is the Government's lead partner in the strategic development and delivery of its e-strategy for the schools and the learning and skills sectors. Becta provides strategic leadership in the innovative and effective use of ICT to enable the transformation of learning, teaching and educational organisations for the benefit of every learner. See also Becta View: Assistive Technology, ICT and e-learning in Further Education (PDF format) and Emerging Technologies for Learning (PDF format).

The Chalkface Project Ltd is an independent educational publishing house, founded in 1991 and incorporated in 1996. Their mission is to make the best teaching ideas available to every teacher in the most practical way.

NAACE is the professional association for those concerned with advancing education

through the appropriate use of information and communications technology (ICT). The association was established in 1984 and has become the key influential professional association for those working in ICT in Education.

Principal activities:-

Paper: Combining new technology with old, they produce detailed lesson plans complemented by photocopy-master worksheets across the secondary curriculum. These are available as bound publications or digitally as downloadable resources.

Electronic: Paperless School is unique in that it is the only e-learning platform specifically designed for the school environment.

Connecting the UK: the Digital Strategy, Cabinet Office 2005

Every Child Matters: Change for Children, DfES, 2004. Also see Youth Matters (.PDF format)

Harnessing Technology: Transforming Learning and Children’s Services, DfES, 2005

Other Useful Resources

Disability Rights Commission - Information and free resources on Disability Rights

Basic Skills Agency – Helping help people of all ages who struggle with words and numbers in their everyday lives.

BBC "ouch" - Disability site including “Your Space” and lots more.

Commission for Racial Equality – They “work for a just and integrated society, where diversity is valued. We use persuasion and our powers under the law to give everyone an equal chance to live free from fear of discrimination, prejudice and racism”.

The Forgiveness Project - a new organisation working with grassroots projects in conflict resolution, reconciliation and victim support.

Rizer is an interactive site for young people around youth justice, crime and the law.

Refugee Action is a site for staff training and development, direct work with young people and information and resources to help refugees build new lives.

The Catalyst Magazine - gives a different cultural perspective on national and world news.

Change – An organisation run by disabled people. It campaigns for the rights of people with learning disabilities.