Learning skills for life after school

Press, 20 July 1988, Page 13

Learning skills for life after school

news

By

SUZANNE

KEEN

“Action ’88” Fifty potential young leaders will be met with a “power-packed” programme when they take part in the Annual Youth Leadership Experience at Kaiapoi next month, according to the course director, Michael Moore. The course is co-ordi-nated by the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award office in Christchurch and is mainly a communication and leadership course bringing together potential young leaders, aged 14 to 17.

It incorporates listening skills, organisation, management, teamwork, stress management, body language, goal-setting, speech-making, debating, time management and many other subjects. Some of the special guests who will be taking part in this year’s programme, which runs from August 4 to 7, include television personality Jim Hopkins, the Mayor of Kaiapoi, Hector McAllister, and a Christchurch City councillor, Carole Evans. Michael Moore said the demand this year was almost double the applications for previous courses. “This programme is unique because of the fact that it brings together many young people who have not previously met each other and assists in the training of skills that many schools and youth

organisations do not include in their programme.” He said the “Action” programme began in 1985 because of the need for experienced young leaders in the community. High schools and youth organisations select candidates to take part in the four-day programme. Snow experience The Y.M.C.A. is holding a snow experience weekend on July 29 and 31 for young people aged 10 to 14. Thq week-end includes two separate camps. Snow survival offers two days of learning techniques such as self-arrest and stepcutting using an ice axe, handling ropes and belaying, understanding snow conditions and building shelters, such as igloos and snow caves. The snow and ski camp offers one day of ski-ing at Porter Heights ski-field, including a lesson. The second day will include exploring the area around Lake Lyndon and making a snowman.

If a lack of snow causes cancellation of planned activities, they will be replaced by hikes in the Craigieburn area, abseiling and caving. A second snow and ski camp will be held on September 24 and 25. For further information ring the Y.M.C.A., 12 Hereford Street, telephone 660-689.

Christchurch’s Pitcaithly House Vocational Centre is working budgeting miracles that would leave most private sector businesspeople speechless. The Department of Education-based facility is providing training for about 1000 secondary school students each year on a Government operating grant of $4OOO.

The centre’s co-ordina-tor, Carole Flight, says that before the visit late last year of the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, the grant was only $2OOO. From that, staff had to pay for "everything from 100 paper to printed material.” “We are unique,” she says. “We are the only off-campus facility of this type in the country, but we are under-resourced and under-financed.” In spite of the fact that vocational training is one of the areas at the forefront of 1980 s education, a new photocopier bought to replace a rather antiquated copying machine is the only sign of technology within the centre’s walls.

A word processor, camera equipment, a computer, decent furniture and a video recorder to tape students doing mock interviews would be among the first items on a staff shopping list if more funds were available. Carole describes the old Peterborough Street premises as “dreadful.”

“In the five years that I have been here there has been no on-going maintenance. This whole thing needs to be bulldozed and the place started again.” However, if you close your eyes to the worn carpet and numerous pictures hiding chipped paintwork, and concentrate instead on the cheerful staff, cosy donated furniture and warm atmosphere, it is possible to feel a very warm response to Pitcaithly House. The valuable education it provides certainly belies the building’s bland exterior. It was first set up when jobs began to get short about 10 years ago, mainly to try and make young people more presentable when seeking employment. However, as times have changed, so have the centre’s functions expanded. Carole says it is now an extension of the transition programme run in schools. Although student-based, it also acts as a resource centre for teachers. It runs courses of varying lengths, covering

job skills, such as selfmarketing, and job interviews, as well as life skills like banking, budgeting, family planning and flatting. There is heavy community involvement, with employers giving their time to take part in mock interviews and other people, such as the police, coming along for discussions. Carole says that one of its main aims is to help young people gain motivation. “They may come here planning to be a hairdresser, but there just aren’t jobs out there — they leave with a realistic idea rather than a fantasy. We are empowering kids to make decisions for themselves that go past lunchtime.” She adds that Pitcaithly caters for all young people, from the “at risk kids to your very bright seventh formers.” Some young people come because they want to gain job skills. Others do not know what they want to do when they leave school, and some just want time away from the classroom. Because of the demand

for the centre’s training, some programmes end up with groups of 17 to 18 youngsters. Carole believes that although the centre has close contact with guidance counsellors and transition workers in schools, it is important that the house was off-campus. Students are allowed to wear mufti and are on a first-name basis with the tutors. They are treated like adults, and most respond well to the responsibilities they are given.

“We tell them that they will be treated like they are at work, and if you are at work you have to turn up on time and you can’t say you will not do something unless you have your mate there.”

The centre is continually piloting new courses to keep up with trends in the community. One of its most recent is a three-day assertiveness course for more senior pupils which aims to develop communication skills. At the end of each course, students are asked to fill in a questionnaire indicating their feelings about the training they have received. Carole

says the views are generally “overwhelmingly positive.” “They see the interview skills as important and they feel more confident to communicate with people they have never met before. It gives them a time in their life they can look back on when people listened to them. They have learnt transferrable skills — being able to say no and making complaints properly.” If the centre had more financing, it would be able to free some of its staff for research and documenting its progress. At present, it loses track of most students after they finish a course, although it is known that the tight economy means the majority will return to school. Carole says that one of the few options Pitcaithly has to increase its funding is to become user-pays. This would mean incorporation into schools as part of a “special education package.” “Everyone is proud of what happens here, but they will not back it up with the dollars,” she says.