Youth who have dropped out of school will have the opportunity to attend alternative education through the Te Arawa Lakes Trust.
A one-year education programme by the Trust aims to build up the confidence of youth who have left school with no qualification.
Peter Morrison has been teaching youth at risk for the last 6 years at the Employment Training Unit centre in Rotorua.
He says, “We're here to first of all get their education right, build up their confidence, work on their self- esteem, and get them ready for the next step in life or the next pathways.”
There are currently 18 students on the programme aged between 16 and 18. Peter Morrison tutors the automotive course. He says the programme gives youth the opportunity to gain a qualification through one on one training.
“There's a lot of our kids out there that are doing nothing, that are sitting at home.”
The programme is funded through the Tertiary Education Commission and community support group Baytrust.
Morrison says, “We are one of the last PTEs around. We've been stretch by the government on all the new rules and regulations that they have been putting in.”
Morrison says the majority of his students come from broken homes and have fallen through the cracks of mainstream education.
“We need to see out kids succeed and for them to set an example to their own kids later.”
The Te Arawa Lakes Trust and the Employment Training Unit centre believe youth at risk deserve a second chance and are happy to help youth who have taken up the challenge.