Young people will progress from the Learning Gateway into Work Based Training, Further Education or a job with study/training, where they will continue to receive the support of their Personal Adviser if need be. Most young people will make this progression from Life Skills, but there may be some young people who are able to make the progression direct from the front-end of the Learning Gateway without needing to undertake Life Skills provision first.

 Target Group

Many young people will make a successful transition from school to subsequent learning (be that further education, training or a job with study/training) with relative ease and will not need the Learning Gateway. The Learning Gateway is intended to target those 16/17 year olds who are vulnerable at this transition phase. The priority is those who are disengaged from learning but the Learning Gateway also aims to help those who are in danger of dropping out of learning because of a lack of the right skills, qualifications or attitudes, or other personal and social obstacles.
The target group may be disaffected by attitude or disadvantaged by circumstances or characteristics.

 Personal Advisers

Personal Advisers are perhaps the single most important feature of the Learning Gateway and bind together the front-end and Life Skills, providing seamless support for an individual. They provide help on a caseworker basis including initial assessment, guidance, planning, review and support. Most Personal Advisers will be Careers Service staff, but Careers Services have the discretion to appoint some from outside organisations such as the Youth Service (the Careers Service will be responsible for their training, quality assurance and so on ). The principle is that the Personal Adviser should if possible be the person best able to provide the required service to the particular young person. The first requirement of the Personal Adviser will be to get alongside the young person and quickly build a relationship of trust.

Learning Gateway Personal Advisers will need to develop links with those in equivalent roles eg SEN Co-ordinators, Employment Service Under 18 specialists, New Deal Personal Advisers.

 The Front-End

Assessment, guidance and planning cover different aspects of the young person's development, not simply further education, training or employment. They include social welfare, health and where necessary criminal justice. A thorough, client-centered assessment process is an essential component of the Learning Gateway. It should build on any existing assessments.

The initial assessment will result in the young person agreeing an Individual Development Plan (IDP) with their Personal Adviser that sets out the findings of the assessment, planned action and the support to be provided. Early IDPs may be quite simple documents depending on the capability of the young person to engage in the process, but will still be viewed as a positive step forward. Others will be more comprehensive from the start. The IDP is a ' living' document, and will progressively evolve and build during the young person's time in the Learning Gateway, quickly for some and more slowly for others. The Personal Adviser will be at the heart of helping the young person to engage and make progress as quickly as they are able.

The Careers Service will pay travel expenses incurred by young people during their time in the front-end of the Learning Gateway, on a strict reimbursement basis so not to adversely affect any benefits the young person may be claiming.

The outcome of the front-end of the Learning Gateway will be that the young person progresses to a suitable learning option as a next step. This may mean entering a 'mainstream' learning opportunity (if possible to at least NVQ Level 2, or equivalent) such as a Foundation Modern Apprenticeship (formerly National Traineeship), Further Education or a job with study/training. Probably it will more often mean undertaking a programme of activity arranged through the Life Skills option. Some young people may also need to be referred to specialist agencies for help (eg drugs counselling) outside the Learning Gateway; this can happen during the front-end and/or the back-end of the Learning Gateway. Young people will qualify for an incentive bonus of £50 (TEC funded) when they progress from the front-end and start in Life Skills. They will qualify for a further incentive bonus of £50 when they progress from Life Skills into Work Based Training, full-time Further Education or a job with suitable training. Any young people who progress direct from the front-end straight into Work Based Training, full-time Further Education or a job with suitable training qualify for only one incentive bonus of £50. In all cases the bonus is not paid until the young person has actually started in the provision. No individual can qualify more than once for each bonus.

There is no fixed duration for the front-end. It will depend entirely on individual need.

Life Skills

Life Skills will allow a flexible, tailor-made package of activities and support to be put together to meet the identified needs of the young person. The aim of Life skills is to improve motivation and confidence, develop key skills and personal effectiveness skills and provide opportunities for work and learning sampling. There is an expectation that the provision will, wherever possible, involve innovative approaches and locations which will capture and capitalise on young people's interests and facilitate their progression.

There will be a common core of basic and key skills development, vocational preparation and personal development, the balance between these elements being determined by the needs and priorities of each individual. Programmes will be arranged in manageable sequences of activity and units of learning with the end-point of each clearly in sight. Progress will be frequently reviewed so that learners can see what has to be done to remain on target.

There is no fixed duration for the Life Skills element of the Learning Gateway. Individuals must participate for at least 16 hours per week and will be paid the minimum training allowance (the same rate as Work Based Training and TEC funded). The 16 hours is a minimum and young people may undertake additional activities on top of that. Millennium Volunteering cannot form part of the minimum 16 hours (for reasons of double funding), but it can be done as an additional activity on top of the 16 hours. As mentioned above, an incentive bonus of £50 (TEC funded) is payable when the young person progresses from Life Skills and starts in Work Based Training, full-time Further Education or a job with suitable training.

 Outcomes

The focus of much of the learning activity in the Learning Gateway will be on developing employability, active citizenship and personal development with a view to progression to ' mainstream ' learning. Awards and qualifications could be used, but are not the principle outcomes.

It will be important for the learner and the Personal Adviser to keep up-to-date, detailed records of learning and achievement while on the Learning Gateway. These records will be vital in keeping track of the learner's progress as they move in and out of the different elements of the Learning Gateway.

Guarantee

It will be inappropriate and unhelpful during this preliminary period of working with their Personal Adviser in the front-end of the Learning Gateway for the young person to be placed in the Guarantee Group - inappropriate because they are not yet in a position to take up a learning opportunity and unhelpful because it would trigger the application of the deadline for placing under the Guarantee. Young people will need to be in the front-end of the Learning Gateway for varying periods of time, given that the whole thrust of it is that it must be tailored to the individual and needs-led. Their progress should not be governed artificially by the Guarantee deadline, with the risk of placing before the individual is ready or into suitable provision.

This does not, however, mean that there is no discipline applied to the young person's progress. It is the specific job of the Learning Gateway Personal Adviser to do everything possible to help the young person move as quickly as they are able towards entering a suitable learning opportunity (be that Life Skills, Work Based Training, Further Education or a job with study/training ). There is also the incentive bonus of £50 payable to the young person upon progression.

If any non-Learning Gateway young person on the Guarantee is moved onto the front-end of the Learning Gateway, they should be removed from the Guarantee at that point.

As soon as the point is reached in the front-end of the Learning Gateway where the young person is ready to access a learning opportunity, and this fact has been recorded on their Individual Development Plan, they must be placed on the Guarantee. Progression from the Learning Gateway front-end into a learning opportunity must then be seamless i.e. the young person should start a suitable place straight away.

A young person would not normally need to come back onto the Guarantee once they have progressed into a learning opportunity, whether that be Life Skills, Work Based Training, Further Education or a job with study/training. This is because progression onwards from Life Skills must be seamless, and any difficulties experienced either in Life Skills or in 'mainstream' provision should be addressed and resolved before actual drop-out occurs. If, however, the young person does drop out from their provision for some reason, despite support from the Personal Adviser, it will be for the Careers Service to decide which course of action is needed next. It may be decided that the young person needs to re-enter the front-end of the Learning Gateway, and to claim benefit as necessary. Such a person will re-enter the Guarantee when they are again at a stage of being ready to progress into a learning opportunity (this includes Life Skills again, if that is what the young person still needs). If, though, they are regarded as being ready to be placed straight into a 'mainstream' learning opportunity without the need for re-entry to the front-end of the Learning Gateway, then they should be placed immediately into the Guarantee once more.

For more info on the Learning Gateway and J.S.A click here

As per Benefit Liaison Instructions and Good Practice Guidelines for Careers
Services issued by Government Office and available in all Careers Centres