Activity Agreements

Here`s Youthlink: "Activity Agreements are being delivered to young people across all 32 local authorities in Scotland. Activity Agreements are for those young people who may not, without additional support, make a successful transition to work, further education or training. The information provided on these pages aims to support and inform all local authorities and their partners to best deliver within the Activity Agreement framework."

According to the guidelines Activitity Agreements, are agreements made between a young person and an advisor that a young person will take part in a programme of learning and activity which helps them to become ready for formal learning or employment. The compulsory nature of these agreements comes from the fact that the young people concerned may ( and therefore may not) receive an allowance in return for complying. So if they do not comply?

We are informed that Curriculum for Excellence includes a senior phase of learning after leaving school for some vulnerable 16 to 18 year olds because they may require support to build their confidence, self esteem and social skills and to develop their skills in team working. Since these are the very attributes that Curriculum for Excellence seeks to build in schoolchildren this does suggest a lack of confidence in the ability of the curriculum to deliver: That, or the same rhetoric is to be used to justify further state involvement.

Here is the state involvement:

Intensive advice and guidance will have to be a central element of their activity - particularly when their learning activity must fit in with other issues such as healthcare.

Here is the same rhetoric:

It may take place in informal community or third sector settings  [You mean workfare] to avoid unemployment and poverty in later life. [Recall early interventions initially were to target 0 - 3 year olds in order to avoid the same pitfalls, that is, unemployment and poverty later in life.]

This also requires robust protocols for sharing information about young people`s needs and interests, so the services they access can be appropriately tailored. The development of this guidance will ensure a close alighment to Getting it Right For Every Child.

Oh dear ! When are our children going to be allowed to escape the clutches of the state manipulators and state snoopers?

YouthLink