What are your views? Two recent articles in The Guardian discuss how young people are having to commit to undertake 8 weeks’ work experience for free in retail shops, and how the  Work Programme for long-term unemployed will involve up to 6 months’ compulsory community service. Two very different schemes, but they raise an important [...]

The main thing young people want when they come on our courses is more confidence. Everyone who has attended “Fire Me Up!” or “Ignite!” knows how Inner Flame helps you achieve that. But what do other people think? You can’t get confidence from just reading stuff. You’re going to have to take action. However, you [...]

I think this is a brilliant, thought-provoking and entertaining speech from Sir Ken Robinson, entitled “Changing Education Paradigms”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U I’d be really interested in the opinions of teachers and students!

‘ What do you think of the government’s plans to require people to stay in education or training until they are 18 (rather than 16 as now); what are the advantages and disadvantages of this for young people?’   Please let us know what you think of the decision…

Inner Flame are doing some research into a new course aimed at people aged 18-24. We’d love it if you could spare 5 minutes to help answer some questions. If you’re interested in finding out more about the course then please leave us your details at the end of the questionnaire.         [...]

I was at a sporting dinner in Swindon recently – really enjoyable evening – and Mike Tindall was one of the guest speakers on the panel. I have huge respect for rugby players – apart from their courage and dedication on the field, and despite the aggression that’s part of the game, they seem to have maintained [...]

I had another look today at the 2008-9 "Place" survey of Swindon residents (thanks to Karen in Broad Green for sending this). The single issue that residents felt needed the most improvement was activities for teenagers. I suspect that this is something that young people around the country can relate to. In Swindon, I’m told [...]

Setting goals is a great discipline to introduce to your life. The New Year is as good a time as any, although "new year’s resolutions" rarely seem to be successful. In this post, Susie shares her experience and recipe for success… Set a New Year’s resolution you will keep: Seven Steps to Success: My last [...]

It’s great that there’s so much focus being put on creating positive options for young people, and I hope that some of the new ideas and initiatives work. I was interested to read a couple of stories in the last 10 days: Swindon has been chosen as one of 11 pilot areas for Raising the [...]

Or, as "Children & Young People Now" put it, "a dog’s breakfast"! A recent report by the Audit Commission highlighted the bureaucracy and inefficiency of public funding for schemes to address anti-social behaviour. Some interesting statistics included: A typical project leader spends nearly a third of their time (28 per cent) on identifying and applying [...]