Youth council students discover their voice

Three students from Tameside College and Clarendon Sixth Form College delivered training to VIPs from across Greater Manchester at the ‘Voice of the Child’ launch event.

Suraj Rash and Taylor Rooke, Tameside College and Emily Sykes, Clarendon Sixth Form College, alongside other members of the Tameside Youth Council, delivered training to professionals on how to understand the needs of young people.

Visitors included: Jackie Moores – principal of Tameside College and Clarendon Sixth Form College, James Thomas – director for children’s services at Tameside Council and Councillor Joyce Bowerman – the civic mayor of Tameside and many more.

Tameside Youth Council members delivered a number of sessions during the event, hosted at Clarendon Sixth Form College, to show the participants the thought process of young people, how that enables them to form opinions and how to understand and act on those ideas.

The Tameside Youth Council and the ‘Voice of the Child’ event are part of a strategy by Tameside Council to improve the representation of young people in the area and to find out what is important in the borough to them. Alongside the Tameside Youth Council, Tameside College has its own Student Forum.

Suraj, said: “I’m proud to represent the college within the youth council. Events like this are a great experience because to speak in front of people whose opinion matters is a big thing. I’ve really enjoyed it and can’t wait to do more things like this with the Tameside Youth Council.”

Emma Armitage, director of learning and pastoral support at Tameside College, said: “We are very proud to have been involved in an event such as this. Young people are the future of the borough so to have their opinions, and our students opinions heard is something we didn’t want to miss. Well done to those that took part.”