Communities and Local Government have released the document Digital exclusion profiling of vulnerable groups: Young People not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET), which aims to understand group members' actual and potential interaction with technology.
As well as providing background information on young people in the NEET cohort the report identifies a number of strategies for engaging young people through technology. Section 9 of the report suggests that although the internet might provide a good gateway to access information, it was not necessarily considered a good way to access services. This was put down to several reasons including: difficulties with reading; difficulties in finding the information sought; and the inability to ask questions and obtain clear answers. It is therefore important to have ‘hooks’ to engage young people’s interest and where possible, to build confidence, using small steps and support throughout.
There is also gender-specific data, based on evidence from the Connexions Direct website that the majority of young people using the online evaluation forms were mainly female, and teenage boys, young people from ethnic minority backgrounds and young people with disabilities were minimal users of this facility.
Section 10 of the report provides a number of examples which might be able to help NEET young people access services. Although tastes and preferences within this group are obviously diverse and wide ranging, key messages include: keeping it simple; providing it in a ‘safe’ and comfortable environment; and making it widely accessible. Good specific examples of this include: Notschool.net, which provides home-based learning and enables family interaction; BBC Bitesize and MSN messaging service.
Digital technologies can thus help to engage NEETs, but must be available, free, offered in bite-size chunks and provided in parallel with people to support the user. Digital technologies cannot offer a magic solution to re-engaging NEETs, but will play an important part in the future NEETs support services. These services need long-term, stable funding; the various agencies should work in true partnership with shared goals, implementing services tailored to each individual, using a single, trusted intermediary wherever possible.
Communities and Local Government have released the document Digital exclusion profiling of vulnerable groups: Young People not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET), which aims to understand group members' actual and potential interaction with technology.
As well as providing background information on young people in the NEET cohort the report identifies a number of strategies for engaging young people through technology. Section 9 of the report suggests that although the internet might provide a good gateway to access information, it was not necessarily considered a good way to access services. This was put down to several reasons including: difficulties with reading; difficulties in finding the information sought; and the inability to ask questions and obtain clear answers. It is therefore important to have ‘hooks’ to engage young people’s interest and where possible, to build confidence, using small steps and support throughout.
There is also gender-specific data, based on evidence from the Connexions Direct website that the majority of young people using the online evaluation forms were mainly female, and teenage boys, young people from ethnic minority backgrounds and young people with disabilities were minimal users of this facility.
Section 10 of the report provides a number of examples which might be able to help NEET young people access services. Although tastes and preferences within this group are obviously diverse and wide ranging, key messages include: keeping it simple; providing it in a ‘safe’ and comfortable environment; and making it widely accessible. Good specific examples of this include: Notschool.net, which provides home-based learning and enables family interaction; BBC Bitesize and MSN messaging service.
Digital technologies can thus help to engage NEETs, but must be available, free, offered in bite-size chunks and provided in parallel with people to support the user. Digital technologies cannot offer a magic solution to re-engaging NEETs, but will play an important part in the future NEETs support services. These services need long-term, stable funding; the various agencies should work in true partnership with shared goals, implementing services tailored to each individual, using a single, trusted intermediary wherever possible.