A Toolquiz Good Practice
Reach the Heights Arts based policy to develop soft skills for young people “Arts participation projects are able to effectively engage young people in a positive activity enabling them to raise their soft skills such as confidence and aspiration.” Although the number of young people who are not engaged in any form of education, training or employment (NEETS) in Wales has remained fairly stable in recent years at 12%, this still represents a significant number (over 13,000) of young people in Wales. Young people in Wales suffer from disproportionately high levels of unemployment compared to young people across the UK. The Arts Council of Wales were able to provide a body of evidence that showed how involvement in the arts and creative activity can transform the way young people explore and understand the world around them, changing the way they see themselves and what they aspire to in the future. It can contribute to learning both in terms of formal attainment and the development of lifelong skills that help to make a rounded individual – communication, problem solving, innovation and team working. This is based on the principle that there are a myriad of barriers facing young people classed as NEET or at risk of being NEET. In many cases, it is not possible to address these barriers through the provision of conventional classroom based activities. Arts participation projects are able to effectively engage young people in a positive activity enabling them to raise their soft skills such as confidence and aspiration and effectively move into meaningful future activities. Reach the Heights is a £49 million initiative to help young people in Wales to improve their career opportunities with around £27 million funding from the European Social Fund (ESF). Welsh Assembly Government’s Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills (DCELLS) are lead sponsors on Reach the Heights, along with Arts Council of Wales, Children in Wales, Community Music Wales, Funky Dragon, Save the Children (Participation Unit), SNAP Cymru, Techniquest, Urdd Gobaith Cymru. The general objective of this project is to reduce the number of young people in Wales aged 11‐19 who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) or at risk of being so by improving their career opportunities. The specific objective of the Arts Council as a partner in Reach the Heights is to use arts based interventions to increase the economic and social inclusion of disengaged young people and enable them to develop ‘soft’ skills to enhance and improve their employability. The first stage, ‘First Footholds’, works with some of Wales’ most disadvantaged young people to help them defeat some of the barriers they face. The second stage, ‘Routes to the Summit’, aims to raise the skills and aspirations of young people so that they can make better progress in education and training and move more easily into work or higher education. The target groups are : young people aged 11‐19 who are NEET, or at risk of becoming NEET, and professionals who work with young people who are underachieving and at risk of dropping out of education or employment. The Welsh Assembly Government had identified the need for this project through extensive consultation and working with a range of outside bodies. As a partner in the project, the Arts Council of Wales has been allocated an initial sum of £2 million, which has been used to develop a programme of activities over a 24 month period. 42 projects have been funded as Participation projects and 3 Training projects. Apart from the project partnership, the programme of activities managed by Arts Council of Wales is developing local partnerships between community arts organisations and other young people support networks to ensure the future sustainability of the project.
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