Activity Agreements National Implementation 2011-12

Details on the nature of young people's participation

4 Referral into an Activity Agreement - The majority of leavers were referred onto an Activity Agreement through Skills Development Scotland (43%); a further 29% were referred by schools and almost 15% were from 'other' sources.

5 Education Maintenance Allowance - 41% of leavers were reported as having received Education Maintenance Allowance. This is a similar proportion to that identified in the pilot evaluation^[3] (40%).

6 Activities Undertaken - The dataset also gathered text-based information on the nature of the provision developed for individual young people. Analysis of this content suggests the following:

• Many participants were involved in highly personalised programmes including considerable use of one-on-one support. This appeared to be based on individual need, and varied considerably from person to person.
• Participants were also frequently involved in already well established courses such as those run by Rathbone, LINC at Skills Development Scotland and college-based provision.
• Many participants took part in industry specific courses, often referred to as 'tasters'. Most commonly, participants were interested in hairdressing, construction, health and beauty, mechanics and hospitality.
• Finally, participants were also commonly involved in provision which develops 'soft' skills, including confidence building, communication skills, health and fitness and hygiene. Similar, and also very common were employability skills courses, covering interview skills, developing a CV and work-related soft skill development.