The summer colleges will be run in partnership with the Youth Justice Board at 18 locations around the country, each working with 10 young people aged 15 to 18. They are aimed at those who may have recently left custody or who are on intensive supervision and surveillance programmes.
The courses, which will be run at venues such as universities, youth centres and further education colleges, will use the arts to help improve the young people's literacy and numeracy skills. Attendees will also be able to work towards the Arts Award qualification.
The summer colleges were piloted in seven locations last summer. An evaluation of the pilot showed that while 70 per cent of the 76 young people who attended the courses had "not been engaged in education, training or employment" for the three months preceding attendance at the summer colleges, this dropped to 30 per cent following completion.
Martin Stephenson, of Nottingham Trent University, who is managing the programme, said re-engaging in education was a "key building block" in the process of helping young people involved in the youth justice system. He added that the goal is to eventually run colleges in every local authority area.
Emma Slawinski, head of young people at risk in the creative partnerships division of Arts Council England, said the summer colleges had been successful in re-engaging young people with education.
She added: "It also re-engages them in a variety of art forms such as music and literature."
