Take a look at the LifeSkills programme and let us know your thoughts for your chance to win £200 of John Lewis vouchers - NOW CLOSED

[KatieBMumsnet]

You might have seen that Mumsnet is supporting the new LifeSkills programme, created with Barclays. It's something we all feel passionate about, and as [[http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/sponsored_discussions/1760262-Talk-work-experience-experiences-and-views-with-Barclays-one-MNer-will-win-a-200-JL-voucher
you've told us]], young people need help if they're going to get into the world of work.


Take a look at LifeSkills, and tell us how you think it's doing? Pledge your support by clicking on the widget above.

LifeSkills Work Week runs from 17 to 21 June 2013 and is an opportunity for schools to get their pupils involved in a range of work-related opportunities, from LifeSkills workshops and resources, careers fairs and business and parent speaking opportunities as well as getting their students out on work experience opportunities.

There are lots of ways you can support the LifeSkills movement. And if you're already getting involved, let us know how!

Let us know your thoughts on this thread - everyone who adds a comment or shares how they are supporting the programme will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £200 John Lewis voucher.

Thanks

MNHQ

[Hopezibah]

I've just had a look at the lifeskills website. I couldn't get the link above to work but just googled it to find the main site. I think it is a great concept and I love the buzz they've created around it. Especially with being able to follow the stories of the unique work experience that a few of the teenagers have won the chance to do with celebrities and big name organisations.

By spreading the word and getting lots of organisations involved, it offers better chances and prospects for young people.

Even if it doesn't reap immediate benefits, then hopefully the earning points scheme to then be able to do work experience projects, will help equip young people with valuable skills to make them more employable, especially once the job market picks up if not straight away.

I'll be mentioning it to hubby to see if there are any opportunities for the organisation he works for to get involved if they aren't already.

[Raaraathenoisybaby]

Keep getting a

[tinypumpkin]

Another one getting the biscuit from the link. I did google it though and think it looks fantastic. I think it looks engaging as a site and I really like the idea of the work experience in various areas. It's good to see that young people need to do something (e.g gain points in this case) to access the experiences as this seems a great and relevant reward. Lots of positive encouragement and hopefully some relevant work experience to develop important skills.

[GetKnitted]

Biscuit from the link in the original post too, but here is the link ---> www.mumsnet.com/microsites/barclays/lifeskills

In terms of the site, I like the concept and think the online content (on the barclays site) look very interesting and informative.

I'm a little sad that public funding and resourcing of careers guidance for young people been whittled down, slowly but surely, but good on Barclays for sponsoring this initiative. Barclays, please don't cream off all the talent to the banking sector, other parts of society need talented young people too :)

[BlackeyedSusan]

hmm... that biscuit looks tempting, even half chewed...

[BlackeyedSusan]

looks a very good idea. I wish I had had some help when I was starting out.

[AnnMumsnet]

Link amended above now...

[VirtuallyHere]

I think anything that gives children a more realistic idea of the workplace/how they go about getting a job is a good idea.

[Trills]

What s "embed widget here"?

[beautifulgirls]

Great to see there are these opportunities there to support young people with their future but I am I wrong in thinking that this sort of support should be provided in schools for these young people? Not knocking this particular set up at all, but this is the sort of thing that will only be found by those looking for it, or who happen to be in the right place at the right time to know about it. Every young person should be given this sort of information and strongly encouraged to consider its worth to them as a matter of routine. Perhaps I was just lucky as we certainly did get this sort of advice at school - but was many moons ago!!

[Cantharellus]

I wish my son's school was doing something like this. they do all the right talky talky noises to parents but it doesn't amount to anything much. I think this looks fabulous, and will be recommending our school to sign up.

[aftermay]

What's in it for Barclays?

Careers advice should be state-funded, not run by a bank or corporation. If a bank can afford it then so can we as tax-payers.

[grassroots]

I think the idea of helping kids get prepared for the world after school is great....but I don't like the idea of school programmes heavily sponsored by one commercial organisation. If it was organised by a trust, supported by all the major UK banking organisations for instance, I would probably feel differently. As it stands, I wouldn't want the programme run in my school, and certainly not as a 'stand-alone' programme.

[JacqueslePeacock]

I agree it looks like an excellent programme. I think lots of parts of this would be really beneficial for young people, and the website is clear and easy to navigate. I do feel though that this ought to be coming either from the schools, or from Barclays separately as part of their "outreach", and am a bit uncomfortable about the connection between the two - particularly the "get your school involved" stuff. I realise that the website says that students can complete some parts of LifeSkills independently online -- but to do the "core modules" and the work experience (surely a key attraction?) their school must be registered with the programme, which I don't think is that great.

[eminemmerdale]

I used to do youth work with disadvantaged and disaffected students and every years they were given a work experieince placement. In some cases it was hugely successful, in others, awful :( This project sounds like an ASDAN type acccredited idea as well. As someone else said, surely it should be part of school anyway? Also, where are the opportunities to volunteer? That would be a way to get organisations interested and support the community.

[HannahLI]

I think it looks great and it has a big skills base thinking about every aspect. I am kind of sad reading that schools are not providing this skills already as they seem so fundamental.

[stealthsquiggle]

Another one who is slightly uncomfortable with the direct funding of such core skills training by one commercial organisation. I think Barclays might be well advised to build in a "degree of separation" through a trust or something equivalent, and to make that abundantly clear. They would still get the benefit of association with the programme, without as much cynicism. I guess this would be easier if they had a similar-sized co-sponsor - so it could be, as it were, "The Lifeskills Trust, supported by Barclays and XYZCorp"

I never had any coherent career advice at school (they barely managed to help with UCAS forms), and no real financial awareness either, so it all sounds great and in the current climate I guess sponsorship is the only practicable approach to making it available to all schools .

[aristocat]

I also think it looks good and I am shocked that I did not realise that schools are individually responsible for funding their careers services.

Our little people are so important and they all need guidance like this.

[ThePskettiIncident]

Good and purposeful, but I'd like to know where the money came from for this programme. The government have recently been giving Multi million pound grants to various banks to front groups and programmes to develop businesses and I wonder if this part of this.

If so, I'd rather the money wasn't sucked out of the education system to pay for a Multi billion pound bank to train our children, especially given the extraordinary damage uk banks have caused to everyone in this country since 2008.

To be honest, even if this is not directly government money, I think what Barclays is doing is the very least it should when youth unemployment is at such record levels.

What are the banks, Barclays included, doing to support small businesses who could employ young people to give them a toe hold on the ladder?

Sorry for the cynical note, but as noble as this sounds on the surface, it smacks of guilt for the damage done to a whole generation of young people by the recklessness of huge banking corporations.

[PenelopeCruiserliner]

Website looks good - I've passed the link on to dd (15).

Her school is pretty good with psychometric testing and lots of support but it's good to do extra. Was telling her only this morning how I had virtually zero help when I was at school and although I sort of got to where I wanted to be in life, any help discovering your potential and getting support is invaluable. Pat on the back for Barclays.

[flamingtoaster]

It looks great - but I am disappointed that this is not being done as part of the normal curriculum rather than as a "special" thing. Young people do need to be taught what is required to apply, be interviewed for, and get a job. They also need experience in the workplace which is more problematic since often "work experience" consists of the most menial tasks simply because they are not old enough or experienced enough to do more. There should be a greater attempts to get more young people volunteering in the community since this gives invaluable experience.

[majjsu]

I think anything to help teenagers with work is good. It is so hard out there for them, I think any support is good. I think this should be shared by other companies and schools. I wish them good luck.

[MakeTeaNotWar]

This looks excellent, these sorts of skills are lacking in young teenagers now and anything that helps them gets ahead and feel well prepared for the requirements of working life is a fantastic initiative. The microsite is nicely laid out, clear and engaging

[Jojobump1986]

I'd also like to know why Barclays are doing it. I'd like to think it's purely to help the children involved but I'm a bit wary of large organisations suddenly coming up with initiatives which seem helpful.

Having said that, I'm giving them a chance to prove me wrong & have sent the link to DH to pass on to someone at his multinational engineering firm. They're quite hot on seeming altruistic & involved in the community. They regularly have both uni students on summer placements & school work experience students coming in as it is so hopefully they'd be up for getting involved.

As others have suggested, I think it would be wise for Barclays to take a step back & set up a trust to run the programme to alleviate some of the cynicism.

[maternitart]

Great idea, I think understanding how professional life works and getting a realistic view into how they might use their skills is really valuable. It could even inspire them to follow a specific career path, or just as importantly put them off something they were considering before they start training for it!

I'm slightly skeptical that for a lot of employers they wouldn't just end up being the tea boy/girl for the week, or get any real insight into industry. Getting valuable work experience in my workplace is virtually impossible, as everyone is too busy to really invest the time to show them how everything works, and colleagues make little to no effort with the placements as they know they'll only be around for a week or two (if that).