Member Article

Aspire funds research into youth aspirations

Cultural change campaign Aspire is aiming to reverse the brain drain of young people leaving the North East by funding a study into the aspirations of the region’s youth. The campign is funding PhD student Suzanne Powell at the Centre for Public Policy, Northumbria University, to carry out a unique piece of research which explores young people’s aspirations for education and employment in the region.

Suzanne, 25 from Fenham, Newcastle, will work with a number of young people from across North East England in her research. With the working title “The ‘North East Really Delivers?’, the report will follow the lives of around 10 young people over a period of 18 months, attempting to develop an understanding of what affects young people’s aspirations for education and employment in the North East.

Suzanne said: “By participating in the research the young people involved will contribute to an understanding about what, among other things, young people aspire to do at school and in their future employment, find out who or what influences these aspirations, including how much control young people have over the decisions they make and the paths they follow. It also gives them the opportunity to get their own opinion across, and to let others know what it is like to be a young person today.”

Pamela Hargreaves, Aspire’s young people and partnerships manager, said: “The Aspire campaign aims to be the catalyst for a culture change in North East England, changing the negative attitudes that young people have of the job and career opportunities available to them here in this region. The results of Suzanne’s PhD will go some way to getting to the bottom of why young people’s views of their opportunities may not be positive.”

As a North Easterner herself, Suzanne is keen to see her work make a difference to the lives of the young people involved: “There are so many decisions that young people have to make from a very young age, about their education, where they want to be and how they’ll get there. This research will offer a chance for its participants to think these things through, as well as giving them a voice to get their own opinions across.

“Rather than carrying out a large-scale, quantitative piece of research, this in-depth study aims to get beneath the statistics and explore the actual impact of current policy upon young peoples’ lives and discuss issues specific to the region.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .