A NEW course could be offered in September at Bournemouth and Poole College for those without some basic qualifications needing help with their life choices.

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council offered a similar, bespoke, short course this year with the Bournemouth Churches Housing Association, reporting some success in helping youngsters decide whether they should continue in education or go into work or an apprenticeship.

The head of the council’s Virtual School and College Kelly Twitchen said the college course would be aimed at those who might need extra support to decide which direction they wanted to go in after not achieving the English and Maths grades they needed at GCSE which would have enabled them to go into either further education or an apprenticeship.

She told councillors that talks about the course were on-going with the college but she was hopeful that it could be offered from September 2022, offering additional support for those attending.

She said that English and Maths would be an integral part of the courses, but delivered in a “short, sharp” way so the students did not disengage.

Ms Twitchen told the meeting that the virtual school team had increased its staffing and now included specialist officers working with those not in education and training and those who were at college or at work, supporting them up to the age of 21, or 25 in some cases.

The Virtual School is designed to support young people who have a background of being in care or are leaving the care of the local authority.

Ms Twitchen said that there remained problems in finding some suitable apprenticeship posts, the difficulties often occurring in would-be employers gaining suitable accreditation, or arranging accreditation elsewhere.

She said that Covid had also affected the number of apprenticeships on offer because some businesses continued to operate fully or partially online creating difficulties in offering work experience or suitable supervision.

The meeting heard that BCP itself has increased the number of apprenticeships it offered to virtual school students from four last year to ten this year.