Prime Time 7, Coursebook plus Semester Self-checks

4 Reading: The PAYP scheme Read the text about the PAYP scheme, then choose the correct answer (A, B, C or D) for questions 1–5. Put a cross ( ✘ ) in the correct box. The first one (0) has been done for you. Early intervention schemes at risk of closure 1  The PAYP scheme (Positive Activities for Young People) provides programmes for under-achieving youths at risk of becoming NEETs, and is part of the government’s early intervention programme to break “the cycles of underachievement which blight some of our poorest communities”. But as the government looks to reduce spending, the scheme could be abolished. Sixteen-year-old Jonathan’s younger brother had died last year. He had lost his father when he was at primary school and his grandfather died earlier this year. “It just made me feel angry. I felt like I wanted to kick and scream and when I went to school it made me angrier because everyone was looking at me. I felt lonely and kept walking out of classes to be alone. I was hanging out with the wrong people and drinking in the park,” he said. Jonathan’s poor attendance at school and his anger problem prompted the school to refer him to Connexions, an advice, information and guidance service for young people. They allocated Jonathan a personal adviser, Paul Rice, who put him on an early intervention scheme for young people at risk of becoming NEET – not in employment, education or training. Since starting on the programme, Jonathan’s attendance at school has improved and he has started volunteering at the local youth centre. He starts at college in September to train as an electrician – something he could not have imagined doing last year. The scheme is paid for by the local authority with PAYP funding, which will come to an end next year. Paul Rice says they are waiting to find out if it will be extended. “If PAYP did not exist next year, that would be a massive gap in my opinion in terms of support for young people. The programme is integral. We are an intensive support team – we react immediately, not three months or six months down, and work with the whole family. PAYP has had a bigger impact than I thought the project would when it started nine years ago,” he said. For the young people it benefits, the loss of schemes like PAYP could make the future even more uncertain in difficult times. Rice says unemployment in Knowsley is high: one in three people is unemployed, one in five people has no qualifications. Mike Taylor, deputy chief executive of Liverpool Vision, a publicly-funded company responsible for attracting private investment to Liverpool, admits that a lot of the economic success of the last five years has not benefited poorer communities. Only one other city in the UK, Burnley, has a higher percentage of low-skilled workers. “We do have to recognise that skills gap has the potential to hold us back,” said Mr Taylor. “So while we are rightly pursuing high end growth, we’ve also got to be aware that we have a lot of people socially excluded from the economy and how we make those two ends meet. We must demonstrate that Liverpool is a viable, attractive investment destination that ultimately will feed economic opportunity right down to our young people, and those people who are seeking jobs through the job seeker’s allowance,” he said. (From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11097336 ) 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 64 Adolescence Check-out Now you can • Discuss and interpret graphs and surveys. • Talk about the nature of relationships. • Identify and use phrasal verbs. • Comment on rights and responsibilities of teenagers. • Talk about teenagers who have accomplished outstanding achievements in business. • Use conditionals. Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv