Our Goal

Why support my campaign?

Training by Choice is the most recent in a number of projects addressing the NEETs issue in Northern Ireland. Like projects before it they have been forced to close their doors due to the Department of Employment and Learning’s lack of policy in tackling this area.

What is a NEET?

In the time the project ran (June 2010-October 2011) NEETs or as they became when they walked through the doors, students were educated in a manner that made sense to them while learning skills in computer programming and 3D graphics design.

Graphics students were producing 3D objects of the style you would see in a PIXAR movie or Xbox game while the Coders were producing mobile phone apps with the plan to go on to Xbox and PS3 games. we are currently putting a showcase together of the work that has been produced and will be posting this online in the coming week.

Our first port of call is to get the project reopened as currently 17 students have been told they must leave this enviroment and attend a training organisation while another 15 students have been left with no option but to sign on with little or no qualifications to help them find employment.

Once we have achieved this we will fully support any worthwhile project that is trying to address the NEETS issue as investment in youth leads to a prosperous future.

This campaign is Led by the Students with support from the staff of TBC.

* * * UPDATE -  23/11/2012 * * *

Since the funding for the TBC project was pulled, we have moved building, and are running a drop in centre from the afternoons until the evening, keeping a core group of students and teachers together, working on developing our skills and using the skills we already have to produce apps, video animations and more.  Obviously not all the students can attend, as they are recieving no funds for doing so, and need to find jobs and means to support themselves until the project returns to normal operation.

As a direct result of our protest at Stormont on the 17th of October, we managed to get inside Stormont and meet with Basil McCrea.  He promised us further meetings to present our case to him, and also to other MLA’s and employees of the Department for Employment and Learning (DEL).

The first meeting took place a few weeks back with Stephen Farry along with other members of DEL.  This was followed by another meeting with Basil McCrea, which went extremely well. Basil, who has experience and some background in the ICT sector, understands how important this issue is for not only the education of young people, but their future careers, and the future of the ICT, programming and graphics industries within Northern Ireland.

As a result of this meeting, Basil McCrea has said that TBC will work in partnership with Belfast Metropolitan College, they will provide TBC with premises to work from and our students will be registered with them.  It was made clear that the teaching side of things would not be interfered with, as the unique style of teaching and course delivery seen at TBC works, and it was agreed that this should not be changed.

We anticipate that TBC’s courses in graphic design and computer programming, should be re-opening in new premises in the new year, we’re hoping for sometime in January.

We’re all really pleased with the outcome of our protests, our campaign on the WIMPS website, and we just want to to be back to business as usual as soon as possible.

At this point, all at TBC would like to thank, WIMPS, Basil McCrea, colleagues, friends, parents, and all associated with helping us on our way to getting back to operation.

We will update this page once we reach our goal of re-opening in 2012. 

Regards, TBC staff and students.

:)

 

Find out more

• Training By Choice