As Youth Work Week (3-9 November) shines a light on creating safe places, trusted support, and opportunities to thrive for young people, we're proud to showcase the impactful work of Street League, who have profoundly integrated our Essential Skills Framework into their transformative programmes.
At Street League, young people embark on 10–12-week academies that guide participants through a journey designed for learning, personal development, and self-awareness. These academies are designed to instil workplace behaviours and prepare participants for the world of work. This includes learning how to use public transport, following a routine and timetable, and engaging in focused courses that develops their essential skills.
The Universal Framework: Powering Essential Skills Development
A key component of Street League's success is the strategic integration of the Universal Framework. All of their workshops and qualifications are carefully mapped to one or more of its components. This mapping ensures that Street League staff can align specific content and themes with the relevant skill steps of the Framework, providing a clear and consistent pathway for skill development.
The Framework is more than just a guide; it serves as a powerful self-reflective tool, enabling young people to actively measure their own progress. In the first week of the programme, participants, with the guidance of trained Street League staff, establish their baseline step within the essential skills framework. This assessment is then revisited in week 5 and again in week 10.
Tangible Progress, Brighter Outlooks
Street League's internal data clearly demonstrates the significant impact of this structured approach. The greatest progress in essential skills occurs between weeks 1 and 5, as the benefits of routine, peer interaction, and a sense of purpose significantly boost participants’ confidence and outlook.
"Working on essential skills was really important to me in my journey. Especially my confidence and communication skills as this was something I lacked from not attending school after Y8. After improving these skills at Street League, I felt much better about myself and felt that I could actually achieve something. I'm now working in the NHS and don't think I'd have been able to do this without improving my skills at Street League."
This systematic development, underpinned by our Essential Skills Framework, provides young people with the trusted support and safe places they need to build critical capabilities. The result is a generation of young people better equipped to seize opportunities and confidently step into brighter futures.
"Using Skills Builder has given us a fantastic framework to develop essential skills in the young people who are engaged with Street League. The benchmarking tool allows us to measure the progress that young people make in their time with us and illustrates the impact that our services have. Embedding Skills Builder into our session delivery has also helped our young people's development as we have been able to make specific reference to the skills we are working on and use reflection questions to encourage participants to think about their own progress."
Street League’s commitment to fostering essential skills directly embodies the spirit of Youth Work Week. Their dedication to empowering young people for work and life showcases the profound impact that focused youth work, supported by robust frameworks, can have.
About Street LeagueUK
Street League UK is a charity that uses the power of football and fitness to help young people (aged 16-30) facing barriers to employment. Through its academies, Street League provides a structured programme that combines sports coaching with essential life and work skills training, including CV writing, interview techniques, and teamwork. By fostering physical and mental well-being, confidence, and key employability skills, Street League empowers young people to move into sustainable employment, education, or training, building brighter futures for themselves and their communities.
