Give and Take

This pre-vocational employability programme improves young people's employment-related skills and increases their self esteem and confidence.

The Give and Take Scheme works with 16 to 21 year olds from across Northern Ireland. Many of the young people have been in care or identified by social services as not ready to take part in mainstream training or employment.

We work with 68 young people at any one time who are classified as NEET (not in education, employment or training) and have been referred to the scheme through the health and social care trusts. However due to the roll on roll off nature of referrals we work with approximately 140 different young people each year.

The Give and Take Scheme helps these young people gain qualifications, have a greater feeling of self worth, have support structures in place, and be better prepared for the workplace.

Young people can participate with the Give and Take Scheme for up to 24 months depending on level of need. Upon completion of the scheme a tailored exit strategy is agreed and outstanding actions prioritised. The young person’s mentor continues to provide consistency and support during this transition period.

The Give and Take Scheme is a standalone section within the overall Employability Service provided by all five of Northern Ireland’s health and social care trusts. Our team works across Northern Ireland and has offices in Belfast, Armagh, Ballymena, Derry, Enniskillen, Newtownards and Omagh.

Include Youth’s employability team also delivers the Employability Service in both the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and Western Health and Social Care Trust areas.

The Give and Take Scheme is only able to offer this intensive support service to young people in need thanks to our funders: European Social Fund, the Department of Employment and Learning, The Big Lottery Fund, the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, the Northern Health and Social Care Trust, the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust, the Southern Health and Social Care Trust, the Western Health and Social Care Trust and Children in Need.

A recent independent evaluation of the Give and Take Scheme has been carried out by Locus Consultants. The detailed evaluation report covers the period 2008 to 2010. Some of the key findings of the report are:

• The Give and Take Scheme model is one that works and should be sustained.
• The Give and Take Scheme currently works with a small segment of the overall NEET group (140 per annum out of a total 10,140 Northern Ireland total). It could be argued that there are other segments of the NEET group which require support and assistance as much, if not more, than those young people from a care background (edge of care, homeless, addicts etc). Include Youth as an organisation needs to decide if they wish to expand their current client base and to provide a much larger programme (in terms of numbers) across Northern Ireland. There is a growing recognition within the market place that Give and Take works and should be opened up to other young people in need.
• European Social Funding (ESF) secured in 2008 helped to develop the Give and Take programme, particularly in respect to the provision of essential skills (in-house) and developing a better employer focus through specialist employer facing functions / staff. Given the success of these interventions a further application to ESF should be made building upon the work already carried out and developing new approaches which are better suited to the current labour market.
• The success of the model should be communicated widely to inform discussion and debate in respect to meeting the needs of NEET young people.