A leg up...

Lifted this from The Guardian.co.uk this morning,


A course in racing shows how young people without qualifications can be given a vital leg-up



Instructor Neil Pollard (red top) with student Aiden Taylor on the straight gallops at the Northern Racing College, Doncaster.
Photograph: Christopher Thomond

Aiden Taylor recently made his first foray into cooking and is reasonably proud of his achievement. "I made an omelette – it didn't burn." Aiden, 16, is learning to cook as part of a 12-week residential course at the Northern Racing College (NRC) near Doncaster that he hopes will be the first stage in a career in the horse-racing industry.

With days starting with mucking out stables at 6.30am and ending with tutorials in the evening, it is hard work. "I've never, ever had to get up early and work so hard, but I'm happy to do it because I want to go into racing."

But he wasn't always so motivated. He left school with no qualifications but with an interest in horses. "I didn't really like school – learning English and maths. I found it boring. I've found it a lot easier here because we learn one-to-one rather than in a group. If you really struggle they help you.

"I left school and there were no jobs. I'm the right height and build for being a jockey so I thought I'd give it a go."

Had he not begun at the NRC, Aiden might have drifted into the group of young people not in education, employment or training, the Neets. Latest figures show there are now over a million young people aged 16-24 in this category.

The college, however, offers a glimpse of what can be done to help shift that figure. There are no barriers to entry and the learning is set in a practical environment. Taking young people away from peer pressure, structuring their lives and demanding high standards of behaviour can have spectacular results.

The college offers many courses, but it is the foundation course that provides the way into racing for young people. It consists of a 10-week NVQ level 1 in racehorse care and the two-week induction to level 2, the rest of which is completed when they move into work in the industry.

The students learn four key skills at level 1: application of number (maths), communication (English), working with others and IT; and emergency first aid. They also learn how to cook, physical fitness and how to manage their money.

Eight out of 10 students leaving the course get jobs in the racing industry, initially as stable staff. Those who have riding ability and are the right size become jockeys.

About 140 students do the course each year and demand is high. At present, funding comes from the Learning and Skills Council, but this will pass to the Young Persons Learning Agency and the Skills Funding Agency when the LSC is wound up. The racing industry itself also makes a contribution of 25% per student, which funds the residential aspect of the course.

According to Dawn Goodfellow, the college's chief executive, about a third of the students entering the foundation course are Neets.

The government announced at the beginning of the year that it wants to fund 35,000 extra level-3 apprenticeships, which require an initial level of achievement in English, maths and ICT. Goodfellow argues that more funding is needed for students who cannot achieve this.

To get to NVQ level 3, individuals will need to have achieved A-level standard in maths, English and ICT which, she says, defeats the whole point of vocational education. The work at the college, she says, shows what can be done to get young people up to speed in English and maths when the barriers to entry are set low. "What we must not do is place too high an academic restriction at entry level because this will put off young people who have skills in other areas.

"Kids who have failed miserably in these areas, once you give them the confidence, can develop. But if you set the standards too high to begin with, you lose that person altogether."

Helping them get up to the basic level does, however, require some lateral thinking. "If you are teaching maths and working out volume, it might be related to what you're feeding a horse, how big its stable is, the paddock size you would need. To develop literacy skills, we use the Racing Post. We use subjects they are already interested in to try and motivate them."

Unusually, there is a mixture of traditional horsey types studying alongside many who haven't touched one in the flesh before. "A lot of people are surprised that we get so many kids from working-class backgrounds. But that mix brings a real magic to the place."

The students are residential on the college campus and, while this is rare, it offers a glimpse of what could be done elsewhere to tackle the problem of Neets.

Goodfellow says many of the young people on the course have experienced problems as a result of "completely chaotic family backgrounds" and so the residential aspect of the course is critical to its success. "You can bring structure to their lives. They are being fed three times a day, at the same time every day. You watch young people who come in unable to make eye contact with you, who don't know how to sit down and eat a meal with you but who, within two weeks, are completely different people, who will shout 'good morning' across the yard, who are excited and inspired by what they are doing. It is surprising how quickly you can make that difference."

Neil Pollard fits the profile of many of the students he now teaches. Originally from an estate in Liverpool, he hadn't touched a horse before a spell of work experience got him hooked on the animals and led him to enrol at the NRC's sister college, the British Racing School.

After a 14-year career as a successful jockey, he now imparts his knowledge to the students at the NRC and he, too, sees the character-building effects of riding a horse. "The ones with no experience we devote a lot more time to. But after one or two weeks, you wouldn't be able to tell who started as a rider and who started as a novice. We ask students questions by putting them on a more difficult horse, and when they come through that it's very satisfying."

If only this was available in SA 20 years ago!!