The Bath and North East Somerset Skill Me Up Award – What is it?

When you get involved with Bath & North East Somerset Youth Connect, you have the opportunity to gain and develop a wide range of skills and knowledge. You might gain organisational and communication skills when you help organise events; you might learn to work with other people as part of a team when you get involved with arts-based work or take part in sports events and activities; or you might learn practical skills when you take part in activities workshops or volunteering.

The Bath & North East Somerset Skill Me Up Award is a way of recognising what you have learnt and gives you a chance to show others what you have achieved.

Some young people have said these things about gaining an award like the Bath & North East Somerset Skill Me Up Award:

• "Other people know what I am capable of"
• "I am more confident now"
• "It is something to do with something to show for it at the end"
• "Getting the certificate feels good"
• "I can put it on my record of achievement"

Who can do it?

Any young person who is aged between 11 and 25 and is an active member of a youth hub or project can take part in the Bath & North East Somerset Skill Me Up Award. All you have to do is talk to your youth worker who will complete a simple form. This is to plan what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it.

What do I have to do?

Your youth worker will work with you to identify what it is you want to achieve, what you will learn from the experience and how you will go about it. They will also help you to work out what ‘evidence’ you will collect to show what you did.

You have to spend at least 10 hours working on your project to get your award. Your youth worker will continue to support you during your project and when you have finished, they will look at your evidence, discuss what you have achieved and carry out a simple assessment and recommend you for your award. It really is as simple as that!

What else can I do?

We hope that once you have completed a Bath & North East Somerset Skill Me Up Award, you will want to go on and take part in other award schemes. Other schemes that are available at the moment are the Duke of Edinburgh Award, the Youth Arts Award, together with other Sporting and Skill Awards. Many of these are nationally recognised awards and are good ways of showing potential employers and colleges what you are capable of.

So what's stopping you?  Pop in to your local youth hub / project and ask them if you can take part. For a list of all of the youth services we provide go to the youth hubs / projects pages and find one near you.