Saturday, August 28, 2010

Great to be part of Goole's ‘U Project’ for young people

It was a pleasure to be part of Goole’s ‘U Project’ put on during the summer holidays by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council Youth Service. Yesterday I was asked to contribute as part of the ‘Professionals Day’ element of the project . The project is aimed at those young people who have yet to make any positive choices regarding their education, employment or training options.

Many thanks to Lesley Kinnes of the ERYC Youth Service for all the organisation.

I was in very good company, with six people from different professions speaking to the young people

Sgt Paul Fearnley (Army) was very inspirational in what he said, including describing what he was like as a 16 year old, and how the army got him on the straight and narrow. He spoke about the army, career opportunities and the job of a soldier.

Helen Kerr (ERYC Countryside Warden) gave a great insight into her role and countryside issues. Great that she lives and does a lot of her work in Howdenshire.

Hannah Marshall (Midwife) kept the young people enthralled in her description of her job, including working 13-hour shifts - sometimes without a break, and the joy of just doing her job.

Nadine Webster (Teaching Assistant) told us about her role at Goole’s Riverside Primary School, and how one-on-one teaching really helped the autistic children she worked with.

Martin Conley (Fireman) gave a fantastic insight into the different roles within the fire service, as well as his story since leaving school, from a motor mechanic, army cadet instructor, youth worker, helicopter crewmember and finally a fire officer.

Neil Asquith (ER Training Services) provided a number of stories about his life since leaving school, and his time in the Police.

I was the last speaker as Local Action Team Chair and a local Councillor. I thought I’d pick up on the music that was used to accompany the slide show presentation of the summer’s activities shown at the beginning of the morning – Don't Stop Believing by Journey.

For 15 minutes we talked about a “small town girl (or boy in my case), Livin' in a lonely world, taking a midnight train goin' anywhere” – I related this to the journey of life after leaving school…. But also a journey I took many years from Goole Railway Station overland by rail to China and Hong Kong…. I did seem to hold their interest – especially when they realised it was my phone’s ringtone!

I think I enjoyed it as much as the kids - please see clip below for a combination of 80's Journey with Steve Perry and 2008 Journey with Arnel Pineda.

4 comments:

John Jessop said...

I'm delighted to see people giving their time to help inspire young people but where are the "creators and producers" i.e. the Engineers, the scientists, the craftsmen, the miners, and the farmers etc? All of these have an essential role to play in the world out there which these youngsters are living in.
Before you ask - yes would put my money where my mouth is - I could help with some of the aspects of Engineering if you wish to go down that road.

Kerri Harold said...

Hey Paul, just thought I'd say what a fantastic event for the young people of Goole and Howdenshire. Hope we have the chance to replicate in the Beverley LAT Area.

laplumedematante said...

Obviously John is right in that there were lots of important occupations not represented at this event, but it would have been logistically impossible to have them all there! Also, if you have too many speakers, such an event would become counterproductive in that younger folk will easily lose concentration and interest after a while.
The important thing is that events like this are taking place.
As a secondary school teacher, who has a lot of classes of 14-18 year olds, I am very much in favour of pupils attending as many careers events as possible, but preferably in the evenings, weekends or holidays. With a crowded curriculum, we lack teaching time as it is, especially for GCSE, so it becomes very frustrating when pupils miss too many lessons through attending careers events.

John Jessop said...

I appreciate the educational time constraints but we must not lose sight of the need to encourage youngsters into wealth creating careers (I stress this is not personal wealth but the wealth of the society we live in). At the end of the day services have to be paid for - something which is too easy to forget!