Prince's Trust teams celebrate the successful end of their course
The latest Prince's Trust teams at Ayrshire College have now finished their 12-week course - making history as the first teams from the College to be taught the programme online.
Ongoing Covid-19-related restrictions meant that Team 184, 185 and 186's experience was unlike any other, with limited in-class teaching and no residential week to look forward to.
Initially the three Prince's Trust team leaders who delivered the course for the Ayr, Kilmarnock and Kilwinning based students were sceptical that a predominantly online Prince's Trust course would work.
As the programme mainly focuses on developing young people's confidence, the fear was that by delivering the programme over Microsoft Teams, the students would not forge the friendships that ordinarily make the course so special.
However, over the course of 12 weeks, the students have excelled themselves as they took on new challenges, learnt new skills, and came together as a group to build up each other's confidence.
The students took part in several workshops during the course, where they learned about e-safety, engaged in a short money management course, as well as an employability workshop where they developed their own CVs. They also had the chance to speak to members of staff at Boots to find out more about the company's recruitment process.
They also embarked on their own personal projects midway through the course – with three students deciding to do a gruelling charity cycle together to all three Ayrshire College campuses. Another student cycled 150km in one sitting on an exercise bike at his home!
The feedback from the students has been overwhelmingly positive, with one student saying: "Prince's Trust has helped me to build relationships that I otherwise wouldn't have made. It's helped to boost my confidence as I was coming straight out of school, and I feel it's now prepared me for the world of work."
Another student said: "I definitely have more confidence than I had before I started the course. I now have the nerve to speak up when before I would've kept quiet."
Robert McCorriston, the Prince's Trust Team Leader at Ayrshire College who led the Kilmarnock team, said at the group's celebration event on Microsoft Teams: "Overall I think it's went fabulous. The young people have bought into the course, and the team leaders have worked really hard to give people the opportunity to do different things.
"Maybe people have said to these students before that they can't do something, or they're not good enough, but we've given them a free rein and full credit to them, they've been brilliant. It puts a lump in our throats when we see the growth in our students. This team are history makers."
If you would like to be part of the next Prince’s Trust programme at Ayrshire College, you can apply online at https://www1.ayrshire.ac.uk/courses/Prince's_Trust.
21 December 2020
Share this post
