Conservative Party Conference: Call for youth sector to promote informal education

Julie Bentley said youth groups need to make more of an effort to work with the government and businesses to raise awareness of "soft skills" such as resilience and confidence.
 
Speaking at a fringe event on the issue at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, she said: “One of the things we have got to do as a sector is take some responsibility because I think, sometimes, we are not good enough at being connected and joined-up.
 
“The curriculum is never going to fit in everything we want it to and there’s a real opportunity to think about how we get the education system to work with us to recognise these soft skills.
 
“We need to do some work around helping employers to understand that young people who come through our groups have these skills and we need to be better at articulating at what our groups do for young people.”
 
Her comments were backed by North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson who said the government needs to do better at supporting informal education.
 
He said: “I would allow any organisation that provides constructive opportunities for young people – whether it’s Girlguides or the National Citizen Service – free access to school buildings outside of school time.
 
“I would encourage schools, if not force them, to open their doors to them.”
 
Dominic Cotton, acting chief executive of UK Youth, said responsibility for youth services should be returned to the Department for Education from the Cabinet Office in a bid to strengthen the links between informal and formal education.
 
In a separate fringe event on equipping young people with skills to find employment, Fiona Blacke, chief executive of the National Youth Agency (NYA), went further and said youth work needs to be embedded within schools.
 
Speaking about the NYA’s commission on youth work in education, held last year, she said: “The report was very clear that the Department for Education needs to take it on board but, despite our efforts, they won’t even talk to us.”