Last week we saw another academic year draw to a close - which made me think about the hundreds of teenagers leaving the classroom for the last time with the weight of the world on their shoulders and many lacking direction. Some youngsters would have left full of confidence about their futures - whereas others would be confused and unsure of what lays ahead for them.
This is why we need to be ironing out these issues for young people before they leave the school gates for good. They need guidance and support to realise what their future looks like and what paths they can take to succeed.
As the National Director of Mosaic, an organisation set up by HRH The Prince of Wales in 2007 to create opportunities for young people of all backgrounds, growing up in the most deprived communities of the UK, I have met a number of youngsters who struggle to communicate to people around them. It is young people like this that will leave school with ambitions for their future but who will not have the knowledge or confidence to realise them because no one gave them the self-belief, no one gave them the guidance to succeed and no one gave them the chance to speak.
I met a 15-year-old student recently, being supported by Mosaic in Milton Keynes, who was low in confidence and wouldn't speak in front of a group of adults. He had been selected for support with us due to his low attainment but since his involvement with Mosaic he has raised his grade from a D to B in his mock English GCSE. In an interview with our staff, he said he was pleased because he felt motivated by his Mosaic mentors to work harder and he now believes in himself to succeed.
More than 80 per cent of Mosaic schools are in the 20 per cent most deprived areas of the UK, which are identified using Government statistics and deprivation measurements. We carried out research with think-tank Demos on the range of mentoring programmes which we use in schools and it found that aspirations play an important role in educational and professional achievement for all young people. It also found that mentoring programmes can significantly raise aspirations for children.
We know that effective mentoring can boost young people's confidence, self-belief and motivation and enhance their communication, language and outlook on life. All of these attributes are increasingly important for success at school and when they go looking for work in the current jobs market. We also have an increasing number of examples of students exceeding their own and their schools expectations in their exam results, such as one school where the 20 students being mentored out-performed their year group at GCSE by an average over 20 per cent.
We need our school leavers to be hanging up their uniforms with good expectations of what lays ahead for them, not full of self-doubt and with puzzled brows. It is tough enough for young people setting out into the job market at the moment, even when they have a clear idea of what they want to do and how to get it. For those without such awareness, the chances of their skills being wasted are worryingly high. If we set our young people up with the right pieces of knowledge then they will gain the right skills and tools to make their futures bright. And that can only be good for all of us.
To find out more about Mosaic go to www.mosaicnetwork.co.uk
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