HITZ uses rugby to increase young people’s resilience, self-reliance and confidence…

16 November 2015

From the moment I arrived at YG for my interview to the moment I left … and still now, I’ve been thinking it was the perfect Job. I was given the task of putting a team together and met a group of young adolescents who proved to be an amazing group and we shared and celebrated together all our success at Kingsholm Gloucester Rugby stadium.

If you’re unfamiliar with the HITZ programme, it’s delivered nationally by Premiership Rugby and is funded by national partners Barclays, Comic Relief, Land Rover and Wooden Spoon Charity. It aims to work with 3,000 young people yearly, tackling some of the greatest challenges facing adolescents today – unemployment, crime and disillusionment. HITZ uses rugby to increase young people’s resilience, self-reliance and confidence. It gives them the skills to get back into education, vocational training, apprenticeships and employment.

Ever wondered what goes on at one of our HITZ projects? Here is a typical week.

Monday: Functional skills in the Morning and attend the Gym in the afternoon and this was repeated on a Thursday.

Tuesday: Classroom based learning – Entry 3 Sports & Active Leisure/ vocational studies and in the afternoon we would be taking part in a sport sessions including Rugby, football, basketball

Wednesdays: Classroom based learning: Employability skills, CVs, application forms and looking into ways to get further employment. We also looked for work placements.

Fridays: 1-1 sessions and working on the qualifications.

As well as growing their learning involvement; fully engaging them with a structured and rewarding program this would be making the educational system more relevant to the labour market and may help reduce NEET rates.  By offering recognised vocational qualifications, see higher levels of young people in employment and lower NEET rates.