Over the last two years the 15 young people have been involved in a unique partnership between Two Trees Sports College, Tameside Council, Tameside College and Manchester City Football Club.
The Pathfinder project has seen the young people take weekly lessons at the City of Manchester Stadium where they have learnt about the way a successful Premier League football club is organised and about the different career opportunities available within football – now all of the group have signed up to continue their education at Tameside College.
Among the MCFC staff the young people have meant include the grounds men, the sponsorship team, Head of Operations and members of the marketing and press department.
Nick Condliffe, head teacher from Two Trees Sports College said: “This is a great achievement for the young people, we always knew these students had the potential to succeed, being involved in this project has enabled them to fulfil their potential.”
To encourage the students to stay on in education the group have been attending special sessions at the Tameside College to allow them to get a flavour of college life.
Dave Coppin from Manchester City’s registered charity City in the Community worked with the young people on a weekly basis acting as mentor to them.
“It has been a pleasure to work with the young people and see the way they developed and matured over the last two years,” he said.
“Some of them have not found it easy but I’m sure they will continue to succeed when they attend college in September.”
The scheme was partly funded by Tameside Council and it is now about to be expanded to work with two other groups of young people.
Vincent Ward, Tameside’s 14-19 Adviser said: “These young people have enthusiastically responded to a unique opportunity to learn. They can go on to achieve even greater things. The success is a result of outstanding collaboration between the organisations involved.”
