The Wirral Apprentice

The Reader Organisation, with funding from the Trusthouse Charitable Foundation, is to offer a three-year paid apprenticeship to a young person aged 16-21 living in Wirral. The person they are looking for doesn’t need to have any qualifications or experience, or even an interest in reading to start with, but they do want someone who’s:

• committed to working with them for three years

• open-minded and willing to learn

• friendly and who enjoys talking to people

• serious about developing as a person

After an initial period of training and confidence building, the apprentice will read with Year 5 pupils in primary schools and follow them through, over a three-year period, to secondary school. Pupils will be selected for inclusion in the project by a variety of criteria: social isolation, literacy problems, negative attitude to reading and behavioural problems.

Included within the apprentice’s programme of work would be opportunities for further education which would build on their experience within The Reader Organisation, so they are equipped with the skills they need to start their career.

Kate McDonnell, The Reader Organisation’s Wirral Project Manager, says:

This is a fantastic opportunity for someone who may not have had the best start in life – educationally, emotionally, or professionally – to be nurtured. It will get their working life off the ground and develop a love of reading which can then be passed on to the primary school children they’ll be trained to work with.

The Seacombe area of Wirral, where the apprentice will be based, is an area of acute deprivation: it scores badly on the Child Well-Being Index compared to the rest of Wirral and more than one in four young people are Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET). The Reader Organisation has discovered first hand that being turned on to books and reading at an early age can have a profound effect on the life chances of individuals growing up in deprived areas.

For people that want to find out more, The Reader Organisation are holding an informal drop-in afternoon on Friday 29th July, between 2pm-5pm, at The Lauries Community Centre, 142 Claughton Road, Birkenhead, CH41 6EY or contact Kate on 07973 247707 or katemcdonnell@thereader.org.uk