The group of 11 young people was drawn from a number of sources – Schools, Colleges and employment. The group met four times during the period from October 24 to April 25. They advised on our various iterations of the Skillsbridge Oldham delivery model and assisted at partner events. We needed their advice and guidance to inform us of the shape and design of project that would chime with young people aged 16 to 25. We met mainly in Positive Steps Oldham (thanks to them) who gave their space free. The idea of the Youth Ambassadors group came out of a previous programme that we ran called The Ideas Factory. This project was not as successful as we had hoped and taught us that we should listen more to what young people felt they wanted/needed rather than just assuming that we knew best.
We wanted to get our Youth Ambassadors discussing the aspects of the programme in terms of timing, location, marketing, content, evidencing progress. The Ambassadors were split into small discussion groups and then feedback to the whole group. The range of issues was covered over 4 meetings, and the group will continue to meet after our events to review the success for the events (the first two Skillsbridge Oldham events are on 28th May at Greenhill Community Centre and on the 26th of June at Positive Steps Oldham
We took the feedback from the Youth Ambassadors (and our Partner Advisory Group) and fed that into the programme planning process to inform the design of the Skillsbridge Oldham programme.
The delivery model has now been revised as follows
- Engagement with partner client’s pre-event if possible
- Marketplace engagement events. Two are already booked in
- At Greenhill Sports and Community Centre on the afternoon of Tuesday 28th May; and
- At Positive Steps Oldham on 26th June
- These will be followed on quickly with workshop-based events around our 4 areas of
- Employment and Enterprise
- Managing Money
- Digital skills for work
- Health and Well being
The group has served us well and has led to changes to our delivery model including: -
- Mixing central and local community locations
- Suggesting suitable timings for events
- Making sure that our progress measurement tool (The Oldham Pledge) is digitised
Next steps are for us to
- Digitise the Oldham Pledge
- Promote the events with partners and across social media
- “Go live” at Greenhill Communtiy Centre on 28th May and then at Positive Steps Oldham on 26th June.
- Plan future events that could be in Fitton Hill, at Oldham College, Oldham Library, Mahdlo, and the Millenium Centre