Newcastle Red Bulls ‘Futures’: Boosting Youth Skills Through Sport
We know that it is difficult to find your feet as a young person today, with economic and personal development opportunities spread unevenly across County Durham and Great Britain as a whole.
Durham has a lower job density rate than the rest of England. We have a higher percentage of economically inactive residents and a higher percentage of school leavers who do not attain their GCSEs.
Collaboration in Action
We know that there is work to be done to close these gaps, spread opportunity and realise the ambition of young people across the county – young people who should never be held back simply based on where they live.
Brought together through the County Durham Pound, a new pilot programme combining employability youth skills with a sporting twist has officially launched, thanks to a partnership between Durhamworks, Esh Construction, and the Newcastle Rugby Foundation.
Taking place at the Young Futures Hub inside the Newton Aycliffe Leisure Centre, the inaugural ‘Futures’ course welcomed its first cohort of young people from various secondary schools in the area for a productive, week-long experience.
Building Youth Skills Through Sport
Over the course of the week, participants tackled core workplace skills, including teamwork, communication, and time management, through interactive physical activities and practical group challenges.
By grounding essential career development in sport-based youth provision, the programme offered a fresh, dynamic alternative to traditional classroom learning.
Esh Construction supported the programme through a £3,000 investment to Greenfield Academy in Newton Aycliffe, helping fund the delivery of the Futures initiative. The company’s Social Value Manager, Kate Marshall, also met with participants to share insights into careers within the construction industry.
She said:
“The Futures programme is a fantastic initiative that helps young people develop the skills, confidence and aspirations needed to achieve their potential. Through our commitment to creating lasting social value in the communities where we work, we were proud to support the programme alongside our activities in Newton Aycliffe and contribute to inspiring the next generation as they consider their future career pathways.“
Supporting Young People in Durham
The pilot was met with overwhelmingly positive response from the young people who took part in a post-programme response survey, with a majority of them feeling that they gained a clear understanding of how the skills they learned would help them to achieve their future goals.
All the young people said they felt that the week had had a positive impact on their mental health, showing the strong power that fun group activities, sport and personal development can have.
The response from the young people was genuinely amazing and what it is all about!
“(It’s) been fantastic. Thank you.”
“This is a very good course. There is nothing bad about this and I advise more people to come.”
By combining practical career tools with active engagement, the Futures programme has already made a lasting, positive mark on its very first cohort!
