Southgate College Helping Young People Make the Grade!

Southgate College is celebrating another success after receiving a Youth Mark award for its services to local young learners after a peer assessment by young people.

Y-Gen's Youth Mark is the only quality award for organisations that provide services for young people, delivered entirely by young people.

Southgate's "Young College" impressed assessors with the high quality support they provide to young people who face barriers, giving them the opportunity to have positive educational experiences. The Assessors found that Southgate Young College staff work with the individual student, creating individual learning plans to suit the young people's educational and personal needs. The young students said that staff talk to them about their needs and offer one to one support and mentoring.

Young Assessors found that Southgate Young College had excellent facilities for students studying vocational courses. The Assessors thought this was especially beneficial to the students as it allowed young people to gain a realistic view of  working environments.

The ESOL (English for Speakers of other Languages) department of Southgate Young College was highly regarded by the students attending the courses. Students interviewed said that the staff were welcoming and very helpful, the assessors were impressed with the open door policy the staff had for the ESOL students going out of their way to provide help to students where needed.

Val Naylor, Deputy Director of Young College said of the Youth Mark assessment process:

"We are delighted to receive this award and wish to thank Youth Mark for recognising our work.  The College is committed to improving standards and support for its young learners and this award gives us great motivation for the future"

Any organisation working with young people can participate in a Youth Mark assessment.  For further details of how your organisation could benefit from Youth Mark contact Jenny Walton on jenny.walton@y-gen.co.uk  or 0208 347 2380.