Last week I visited the Fairbridge centre in Kennington to host a training workshop for a group of young people as part of Fairbridge’s ‘Employ Me’ week. The training was aimed at developing their presentation skills; something we all know is vital if you want to get ahead in your professional life, or even a first foot on the ladder in today’s difficult jobs market. Fairbridge is a nationwide charity that works with young people whom other organisations find difficult to engage – giving them the motivation, self-confidence and skills they need to change their lives for the better.

It was a challenging, fun and interactive day where I got to impart some of the valuable learnings I’ve picked up along the way during my years in recruitment into helping to empower the young people with some of the skills that are vital to getting you noticed by employers.

During the session, the young people, in groups, were tasked with constructing their own presentations which were performed back to the everyone, to detailed and constructive feedback from both myself and the other young people. It was a great interactive session, with lots of ideas being bounced around – we even unearthed a couple of shining stars who had never had a chance to harness their talents in this way. The positive outcome of the session goes to show that confidence, and self-belief, are such important factors when it comes to getting ahead in life and we hope that it was successful insofar as it equipped the group with some useful skills, and most of all, confidence, to carry with them along their individual paths. Below are some photos of the session:

I think it’s fair to say that some of us found it rather a shock to the system as we were put through our paces by a very well-organised and authoritative team of young people! We took part in various sports activities including relay racing, blindfold games, an obstacle course and even a memory game. However of all the teams competing unfortunately we came last. This, no doubt, wasn’t helped by my apparent lack of co-ordination during the Giant Ski Challenge (I’ve never been skiing, give a girl a break!).

All in all it was a really fun day. We met some really great young people who showed highly competent leadership skills in getting us lot from A to B. We’re glad to have been of service and hope that we can carry on helping such a good cause. Below are some photos from the day:

Earlier this month we brought you the commentary from Dr Deirdre Hughes, the president of the Institute of Career Guidance, who said that the “savage” cuts in area-based grants from the Department for Education to local authorities are most likely to hit Connexions services the hardest (Guardian, 3rd August).

As the new government pushes ahead with its Big Society plans, it brings the announcement by David Cameron that he wants to see fixed terms of as little as five years for all new council and housing association tenancies, to help increase social mobility. Cameron conceded that it would prompt “quite a big argument” but said that he wanted to see a more flexible system where people could “move through council housing rather than seeing it as something you get for life” (New Statesman, 4th August). However, the Guardian reported that the suggestion was met with intense criticism from the Labour Party and tenant campaign groups. Simon Hughes of the Liberal Democrats, a passionate advocate of council housing, said that the party “would need a lot of persuading that it has merit or could work”. (Guardian, 4th August).

In other news, there has been fierce debate between the parties over the Lib-Con government’s switching off of the child database ContactPoint, which began last Friday. Tim Loughton, Children’s Minister, said that “very bureaucratic” computer systems such as ContactPoint could not keep vulnerable children safe as well as trained social workers. (Telegraph, 7th August) . Meanwhile, the Independent argues that “the failure of ContactPoint is not a good enough reason to scrap it entirely and within too short a period to put anything else in place.” (6th August).?

We wait with anticipation to see what’s around the corner for those who work in youth justice, probation, housing and social care and how changes will affect day-to-day practice for the industry as the new government implements its new policies. Until then, keep abreast of new developents as they happen by signing up for free daily industry news bulletins via the orange box on the right!

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Some child experts argue that children who commit offences needed to be treated differently from adult criminals.

In March, the UK government rejected plans to raise the age in England and Wales from 10, one of the youngest in Europe. In Scotland there are plans to raise the age from eight to 12.

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Despite speculation that youth offending teams could take on a mainly commissioning role and that more frontline roles would be handed over to the voluntary sector and private providers, Blunt said no decisions had been made.

He said that there were “further opportunities for stakeholders to shape this autumn’s green paper” into justice reforms. He added: “I’m not in a position to say what the systemic answer will be regarding youth offending teams, that’s why we are in the process now of examining all the options.”

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May said it was “time to move beyond the asbo”, arguing that they were never the promised silver bullet and had too often put young people on a conveyor belt to prison.

Two former Labour home secretaries, Alan Johnson and David Blunkett, attacked May’s decision. Johnson, in a piece for the Guardian’s Comment is Free, argued that asbos had made a huge difference in cutting crime and disorder: “If the home secretary is to restrict the opportunities for the police to use asbos and other measures currently available then this will be yet another example of this government going soft on crime.” Blunkett went even further and claimed May’s speech posed “a major threat to the lives of those at the very sharp end of criminality and dysfunctional communities”.

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“For these cuts to take place half way through the year you have got to at least double the figure to make the required level of saving,” claimed Paul Chubb, director of Careers England, the membership body for careers guidance organisations. “You cannot, under any circumstances, describe cuts of this magnitude as efficiency savings. What we are seeing is the decimation of a universal public service for young people.”

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