We are delighted to announce a new partnership with The Prince’s Trust that is enabling us to broaden our range of support for young people in alternative education settings.

Our highly-skilled Alternative Provision and Looked After Children tutors have been trained to deliver the modules from The Prince’s Trust Achieve programme alongside 12 Maths or English tuition sessions.  The Achieve units help young people develop skills in key enrichment areas, preparing them to succeed in whatever they choose to do next.

“Partnering with The Prince’s Trust opens up new opportunities in terms of how we can support and tailor programmes specifically to meet a young person’s individual needs,” says Joanne Meredith, Director of Alternative Provision for Tutor Trust.

“We’ve found that, for the majority of young people that we work with, a blended approach, combining skills development with academic support, really enables them to flourish.  This particular programme is empowering, as the young people make their own decisions about which Achieve modules they’d like to cover, and this increases their motivation to succeed.”

This blend of tuition and other supportive activities is something we’ve already tried successfully with The Right Angle. This project combines therapeutic support and counselling alongside tutoring and is delivered in collaboration with TLC: Talk, Listen, Change, the award-winning relationships charity.

Just like The Right Angle, The Prince’s Trust project supports more than just academic development, giving vulnerable young people the chance to develop personally and build life skills. Which Achieve units are delivered is shaped by each young person’s interests, with the six topics ranging from skills for school, personal and social development, to life skills, support for mental health, active citizenship, enterprise projects and preparation for work.

“Being able to offer tuition to boost a young person’s academic achievements, whilst at the same time supporting them to prepare for work, for example, can be really motivating and our tutees can see a clearer path to achieving their academic and career ambitions, delivering greater impact for them,” says Joanne.

The pilot project has been launched with 16 pupils in Greater Manchester – at Trafford Alternative Provision, Manchester Secondary Pupil Referral Unit and Mossley Hollins High School in Tameside, and we are planning to roll the programme out further in 2022.

Full-time Tutor Sarah Thrussell has been working with a number of pupils as the pilot gets underway.

“I’m working with three pupils at Trafford Alternative Education Provision who are on The Prince’s Trust project. The pupils have been focusing on their academic tuition sessions so far, but have started thinking about what units they would like to choose from the varied range of modules on offer with the Prince’s Trust.

“With choices ranging from Wellbeing and Self-esteem to Sustainability and Careers Skills, it has been interesting to see what the pupils have chosen.

“I have one pupil who wants to look at how to write CVs and prepare for interviews because she wants to become a politician, and another pupil who wants to do an independent research project and presentation about ice hockey.

“As a tutor I’m excited to see all that the pupils achieve in these sessions, and the pupils all seem enthusiastic to do something different to their usual academic studies, particularly when it aligns closely to their passions and future aspirations.”

The Prince’s Trust Achieve Project.

Find out more about our Tutoring Plus service (for young people in Alternative Provision and Cared for Children).