Equality North East

The award winning ‘If I Can... You Can’ (‘IICYC’) programmes from Equality North East aim to raise aspirations, challenge stereotypes and introduce pupils to the world of work.

Over 100,000 pupils have benefited from ’IICYC’ - which has the proven power of changing opinion.

Delivered by trained and motivated facilitators the programmes are tailored to suit the requirements and needs of the specific audience.

They have also been adapted for delivery to young mums, the long-term unemployed, disaffected youth, ex-offenders, NEET groups and Post-16 college students and are intended to build confidence and encourage all participants to be positive about themselves.

Programme aims throughout are:

• To introduce pupils to equality and diversity.
• To build confidence and aspirations by highlighting pupils’ existing skills and qualities.
• To promote generic employability skills.
• To providing the opportunity for young people to listen to and question role models from the world of work.
• To provide an opportunity for employers of today to influence, inspire and motivate employees of the future.
• To raise self-esteem, empowering students to think ‘outside the box’ and consider non-stereotypical career paths.
• To make a positive statement about employment.

Our earliest ’IICYC’ programme - first delivered in 1997 - focused on one group only - Year 8.

It became evident that the important aims previously described needed to be visited at a younger age and in more depth for older students to embed a significant shift in attitude and behaviour.

Specific modules for Year 6 and Year 10 have been developed and established and are available to schools and colleges throughout the region.

‘IICYC’ continues to evolve in line with the changing needs that are determined through qualitative analysis and evaluation.

Common to all of the programmes is the involvement of volunteer role models from the world of work. The volunteers share their life and work experiences with the students to help achieve the programmes’ aims of inspiring and motivating.