L-earn is our partnership project for 16-18s who are not in work, training or education.

HFS has worked with other local social enterprises Hastings Trust, Finding Futures, RVA, and Let's Do Business to develop an "earn while you learn" programme for young adults. The pilot programme, which focussed on particularly vulnerable young people in Hastings and Rother, was funded by East Sussex County Council and ran Jan-Sept 2011.

L-earn was created with the aim of helping young adults to develop the skills, experience, understanding, basic skills and confidence to progress into further training, apprenticeships or work.

In the pilot, young people were employed within local social enterprises for 6 months and offered a range of practical training couses (e.g. customer service, first aid at work) as well as sessions to improve their Literacy and Numeracy in small groups with specialist training providers Finding Futures.

L-earn participant Tom was interviewed by Arrow FM about his experience - click here to download the interview.

Nine of our eleven pilot project participants progressed directly into work, apprenticeships, College or other training schemes. The participants that attended Finding Futures improved their reading, writing and maths, on average by one whole level. They also attained other certificates and qualifications (e.g. level one Furniture Restoration) that boosted their confidence and built up the skills they can offer future employers.

The L-earn pilot has been independently evaluated and we are working with ESCC to offer some more of these opportunities in 2012 and extend into other areas.

The independent evaluation by Mary Denning will soon be available to download here:

Executive Summary A4 (4 A4 sides) PDF

Executive Summary A3 (2 A3 sides) PDF

Full Report and appendices (24 A4 sides) PDF

This L-earn video was made by young people at Entertainment Workshops, an alternative education provider in Rye: