Project notes: Apex Leicester Project's youth department

Goals: To provide education, training, employment preparation, advice and support to disengaged young people

Funding: The European Social Fund provides money for learners still in secondary education, and Entry to Employment (e2e), through Connexions, funds learners that have left school.

Three years ago, education charity Apex Leicester Project noticed a gap in the market to help disengaged young people. So it opened a youth department to offer an alternative curriculum to 14- to 19-year-olds on the edges of formal education.

Apex's original aims were to provide rehabilitation to ex-offenders in Leicestershire through education, advice and preparation for the job market.

As a result, the young people referred to the youth project tend to be either on the verge of exclusion, have been excluded, are young offenders or have not attended school for a long period of time.