HeadStart Year 2 Participants Reflect on Transformational Journey
- Published:
-
August 19, 2025
Graduates of Springboard Skills for Life and Work Programme ‘HeadStart’ gathered in a day of reflection and celebration to mark the end of their transformational 2-year journey on the programme. Participants completed Level 2 qualifications in either Youth Work or Business Administration, Essential Skills, Employability and Personal Success and Wellbeing, taking on work placements along the way to complement their learning. As well as these qualifications, participants are leaving with valuable training in First Aid, Child Protection and Health & Safety.
Young people took part in a reflective group exercise where they highlighted both the challenges and key moments they had experienced over the past two years. Each young person had the opportunity to share their personal journey with one another and what they had learned along the way.
The young people were given personalised video messages gathered by programme staff, featuring photos from their time on the programme and voice notes from role models in their lives such as parents, siblings, placement providers, and programme staff and staff from partner organisation Skilled NI.
The participants also received scrapbooks which they passed around, writing positive affirmations for one another, highlighting how much they had grown and the impact they had made, on themselves and on those around them during their journey.
Some participants are successfully progressing on to further education whilst others have secured employment through their work placements and sectors relevant to their chosen vocational areas. Ciaran, HeadStart’s Team Leader said,
We cannot believe two years has gone by already! We are so proud of all the participants for what they have achieved on the programme. These participants joined the programme as young people and are leaving as skilled, equipped adults ready for employment and further education. We look forward to following their journey as they progress on from HeadStart.