ANNUAL REPORT: NCS TRUST LAUNCHES NEW YEAR-ROUND EXPERIENCES TO HELP TEENS BECOME ‘WORLD-READY AND WORK-READY’
10 December 2021
NCS Trust has published its Annual Report for the 2020/21 financial year. Read the annual report outlining the successes, new services, and challenges.
This annual report sets out what the Trust has achieved during a difficult year, but also looks to the future, recognising that the context in which it operates and the needs of society and young people have changed.
In the year ahead, the Trust will be delivering a transformed NCS with a year-round offering of services and experiences for young people across the country.
New services outlined in the Annual Report include:
Futuremakers: paid work placement experiences to help young people get work ready via:
- UK Year of Service pilots which will offer young people 9 to 12 month paid positions in organisations that specifically help drive social change in local communities.
- Supporting the Government’s Kickstart scheme, providing six month paid positions for teens on Universal Credit.
Skills Booster: free online content for schools and colleges, helping teachers to support their students and prepare them for the future.
Changemakers: monthly community action groups across all local authorities in the country.
NCS Summer and Autumn, the country’s flagship youth programme for 16-17-year-olds, has already engaged with over 600,000 young people in its 10-year history.
Highlights from the 2020/2021 Annual Report:
Staying Connected:
- 297,000 young people engaged with short-form, snackable content across the hub on our website, accessing articles, features and stories that aligned with core elements of the typical NCS curriculum.
Keep Doing Good:
- NCS participants gave over 500,000 hours of social action and/or volunteering in support of local communities during the pandemic.
- Over 6,800 young people took part in ‘Keep Doing Good’ during summer 2020.
- Almost two in three (63%) young people. taking part in ‘Keep Doing Good’ said they were likely to continue volunteering locally and three in four (75%) had also encouraged friends or family to volunteer.
Autumn social action activities:
- Over 16,600 young people took part in NCS autumn activities.
- NCS participants gave over 300,000 hours to social action and volunteering during autumn 2020.
Mark Gifford, CEO of NCS, said: “Our focus for the year ahead and beyond will be on continuing to develop a transformed NCS that will help teens build confidence and resilience and equip them with the life skills they need to become world-ready and work-ready.
“We have already made the move towards offering year-round access to NCS so young people can engage in the way that best suits their individual needs and circumstances.
“We remain committed to backing the country’s youth, continuing to help future generations of national citizens give back to their communities, and build the future that they will inherit and inhabit as ‘our next greatest generation’.”
While the Trust acknowledges that the future will not be without its challenges, it remains positive about the experience young people have when they take part in NCS.
The Annual Report 2020/21 is available on our website at wearencs.com
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
For more information, please contact: media@ncstrust.org.uk
About NCS (National Citizen Service)
NCS is an experience like no other. Designed for 16-17 year olds across England and Northern Ireland, NCS is a youth programme that runs every summer and autumn, during school holidays. Teens get the opportunity to mix with a new crowd, live away from home for a while, take on new challenges and in the process build lifelong friendships.
The programme is all about emboldening young people – by giving them a taste of independence and equipping them with essential skills for life. NCSers then get a chance to take these new-found skills for a test-run in their local community.
NCS is dedicated to providing a platform to make sure young people are heard and can engage with their community by completing passion projects, raising awareness and providing solutions to the issues they care about.
The experience might last just a few weeks, but the impact? That lasts a lot longer. Since 2009 nearly 600,000 young people have taken part in NCS, completing over 14.5 million hours of community action, and gaining priceless life experiences.
NCS costs no more than £50 - with bursaries and support for those with special educational needs or disabilities also available. NCS’s mission is to give every young person the life-changing experience.
NCS delivers value for money. £3.49 of benefits to society for every £1 spent. During lockdown NCS has had over 1.7 million unique engagements with teens through its ‘Staying Connected’ hub.
About NCS Trust
National Citizen Service Trust is an Arm's Length Body of DCMS incorporated by Royal
Charter and established to shape, support, champion and lead a thriving National
Citizen Service.
National Citizen Service Trust is registered in England and Wales with Royal Charter
Body number RC000894.
To learn more about NCS Trust visit LinkedIn
To find out more visit wearencs.com
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