YDC Programmes

The YDC Education Support Programme is designed for fourteen to sixteen year-olds, (years 9, 10 and 11), who have found it difficult to engage with the demands placed upon them within the mainstream educational system. The ESP a flexible but intensive, unique and proactive programme which meets YDC's overall objectives. Our main intention is to change the individual students mindset and influence positive change through personal development.

YDC also offers the School Off-Site Group Programme, an early intervention course for low achievers. The aim of this programme is to assist schools in dealing with students who are showing signs of disruptive behaviour within the school environment and are underachieving. This programme is offered to schools as a thirteen-week intensive course, which is tailored to meet the needs of the targeted group.

YDC staff are available for intensive courses. For example, the popular YDC 3-Day Behaviour Course is used by schools with a troublesome element that wish to address the situation before they are forced into making permanent exclusions. Typically, a school will refer ten children who will come to a YDC site during school hours for three consecutive days where our staff will guide them through an analysis of behavioural issues.

Additionally, YDC offer one-to-one tuition, mentoring and home visits.

YDC programmes cover topics including:

• Peer Pressure
• Communication Skills
• Confidence Building
• Self-Motivation
• Health and Safety
• Culture Awareness
• Anti-Social Behaviour
• Outdoor Education Activities

Literacy and numeracy is offered to individual students to help support them in their main subject area. There are opportunities for students to sit their GCSE's in specific subjects. Other qualifications we offer include ASDAN and OCN courses. Of the latter, YDC are in the process of receiving OCN accreditation for our own unique programme which will be exclusively available to our students. This will cover key aspects of YDC course content and can potentially carry equal value to a GCSE A-C for students who successfully complete it. The launch date for this accreditation is September 2005.

Students who are interested in learning a trade are given the opportunity to follow a course in painting and decorating, carpentry or bricklaying. At the end of the course, successful candidates are awarded a CITB Level 1 certificate. Students may use this certificate as a pathway to go on to further education in the construction field.

Alternatively, the YDC Job Workshop 1-Day Course covers searching for a job, building a CV, interview techniques and filling in job application forms.