About the YJB
Education, Training and Employment
Young people who are not engaged in education, training or employment are much more likely to reoffend than those who are. All young people who have offended should be engaged in learning or work opportunities that are appropriate to their needs, so that they can acquire the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to build a positive future and stay away from crime and anti-social behaviour.
While the YJB does not regard it as the responsibility of youth justice services to be providing education and training programmes, we are funding a number of related initiatives to support the engagement and attainment of both young people who have offended, and those who are at risk of doing so. The YJB has committed around £50 million to fund projects such as:
- school inclusion and mentoring schemes
- the PLUS literacy and numeracy strategy, providing targeted learning materials and practitioner development to improve outcomes for young people (developed in partnership with the Arts Council England and the Department for Education and Skills)
- the pilot ‘entry to employment’ programme, examining the benefits of working in partnership with an alliance of learning providers
- restorative justice in schools and Safer School Partnerships, which provide innovative conflict resolution approaches for schools to reduce victimisation and bullying and levels of exclusion and unauthorised absence.
Reintegration into education and training is actively promoted by youth offending teams (YOTs) and secure establishments, and young people in custody receive compulsory education and training, which is monitored by Ofsted like all other schools. The YJB has set a target for YOTs to ensure that 90% of the young offenders they supervise are in suitable education, training or employment, during and at the end of their sentence.