The Breeze programme has been running for just under a year and is delivered by TBG Learning’s Birmingham centre.

To date, 160 learners – mostly aged 14 to 16 – have passed through the programme, with more than 90 per cent of this number progressing back into school to continue learning or onto further education.

The programme will come to a close in 2013 with more than 400 young people expected to have benefitted from a range of educational and social activities.

Alexia Tsalkitzoglou, Progressions Mentor at TBG Learning, said: “Young people come to us having been referred by their school or another agency.

“The traditional education system is just not working for them, which is not the fault of the schools – it just doesn’t suit every young person.

“The Breeze programme recognises this and offers the young person support and guidance in getting back on course with learning. Very often it might simply be about attendance rather than behaviour. Sometimes it can be a case of not having the confidence in a school environment to be the person they want to be.

“Breeze is a 12-week programme and we offer a tailored approach – working with each individual to set their own parameters for what they want to get out of it. The results have been fantastic and we look forward to helping more young people back into education.

“The whole ethos of TBG Learning is about helping people to play an active role in their communities, through the delivery of support, training and employability services; and that’s exactly what Breeze is helping these customers to do.”

Birmingham teenagers Kieran Harrison and Beth Horridge have got back on track with the help of Breeze.

Kieran admits to having an ‘attitude’ at school but said the Breeze programme has helped build his self-esteem.

He said: “I was kicked out of school because of my attitude but here it was a much calmer environment. It was just much quieter and helped me to work.

“I’m going on to a new course and TBG has given me the confidence to be able to do that and do my work. Hopefully it will mean I can get my grades at GCSE.”

For Beth, the experience has not only helped her in education, it has helped her socially too.

When she joined the Breeze programme, she barely had the confidence to attend school, but just 12 weeks later she was planning a sailing trip round Europe through the Prince’s Trust with a group of young people she had never met.

“Everybody says they can’t believe the change in me,” said Beth. “It has all been about building up my confidence and it has really helped me.

“We’ve worked in teams and as individuals and it has really brought my confidence out.

“I hope this all leads to a bright future for me. I’d like to go onto be a nursery nurse and then eventually a midwife.”

Alexia added: “We are immensely proud of Kieran and Beth and, indeed, all of our learners. Now they have completed the Breeze programme, we will stay in touch and help them in whatever way we can and wish them all the very best in their futures.”

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