CYTS NewsNew Youth Transition ServiceCommunity Colleges New Zealand (Comcol) has been contracted by the Ministry of Social Development to provide the call centre services for the Canterbury Youth Transition Services (CYTS) programme. The aim of the CYTS programme is to track and call all of the more than 6000 school leavers in Canterbury each year to ensure that they are either moving into employment, further education, or training. Those school leavers without a clear path post-secondary school are referred by the call centre team to the programme’s Youth Coaches, who help the Manager Andrew Doughty says that it is a “fantastic programme” that is making a difference to a lot of young people. “It can be a tough time when they’re trying to get into the workforce, and many aren’t aware of all their options in terms of further training and education. Young people and their parents tell us that they’re rapt that a service such as CYTS exists.” If they do need some extra support, Andrew says they appreciate they can talk to someone outside their immediate sphere of family and friends. “The Youth Coaches can offer a slightly different perspective, and often reinforce what parents and caregivers have been advocating. But the clients understand that there are no hidden agendas and that the Youth Coaches are simply there to help them.” CYTS Youth Coaches are provided by other regional organisations, apart from in North Canterbury, where they are based at Community College North Canterbury. Andrew says that most of the 52 schools from Amuri in the north to Ashburton in the south have signed up with the CYTS programme now Community Colleges was awarded the contract on the back of its successful ongoing delivery of the tracking, monitoring and needs assessment components of the Ministry’s Work’n it Out (WIO) programme that assists 15-19 year old school leavers living in the Otago, Southland and South Canterbury regions. The call centre is based at Community College Southland, alongside the WIO call centre team.
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