Youth Guarantee helping young people achieve

Around 1,000 more young people remained in education at age 17 and more young people achieved NCEA Level 2 because of Youth Guarantee programmes, a new Ministry of Education report shows.

The first Youth Guarantee Monitoring Report (2010-2012) shows that Youth Guarantee programmes have been successful at increasing the retention of at-risk young people in education and raising their achievement.

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce welcomed the report. "Youth Guarantee gives more choices for young people about where and what they can learn,” Mr Joyce says.

"Those who have been struggling in a traditional school setting for whatever reason are re-setting themselves and achieving to NCEA Level 2 level instead of dropping out of the system."

Youth Guarantee provides young people with access to fees-free hands-on learning in polytechnics, wānanga, private training establishments and trades and service academies giving them more choice about where to learn.

“The report shows excellent progress. It shows that Youth Guarantee is helping with the lift in achievement of 16 to 18 year olds by giving more educational choices,” Education Minister Hekia Parata says.

In 2012, 12 per cent of 18 year olds participated in a Youth Guarantee programme. These young people had under-achieved at NCEA Level 1 and more than half had experienced at least one disengagement from school, for example a stand-down, suspension or serious truancy.

The report shows that in 2012, 83 per cent of 18 year olds in Youth Guarantee secondary-tertiary programmes including trades academies achieved NCEA Level 2 or equivalent compared with 70 per cent of a similar group of young people who had not participated in trades academies.

A similar improvement in performance is occurring for young people in Youth Guarantee Fees-Free courses in tertiary education. For 2012, 62 per cent of 18 year olds in frees-free tertiary courses had achieved NCEA Level 2 or equivalent compared with 52 per cent of a similar group.

“I am delighted that the Youth Guarantee programmes are helping these young people, 40 per cent of whom are Māori, to stay in education and achieve,” Ms Parata says.

Minister Joyce noted that the report covered only the first two years of Youth Guarantee and that he expected participation and achievement to further strengthen.

“From 2014, there will be around 10,000 places for 16-19 year olds in Youth Guarantee fees-free courses, and another 4,500 in secondary-tertiary programmes. Many of these people would have moved out of the education system without this opportunity,” Mr Joyce says.

The Youth Guarantee Monitoring Report (2010-2012) is available at: http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/tertiary_education/monitoring-the-youth-guarantee-policy-2010-2012