Achieve goes beyond the classroom to offer targeted support and meaningful experiences that many students simply don’t have access to.
Through individual capacity building focused on personal, social, and emotional development, the programme equips young people with the essential skills and confidence to connect with their aspirations and prepare for successful lives and careers.
Through a combination of intensive one-to-one support and wider system engagement, Achieve aims to create lasting change – not just for individual students, but for the schools that support them.
It’s built on local research, shaped by educators and local authorities and grounded in the real needs of young people.
Achieve Core Programme
150 students from six target secondary schools take part in a three-year immersive programme focused on essential skills, resilience, and career readiness.
Support includes professional mentoring, bespoke extracurricular activities, emotional wellbeing support, residential experiences, and careers education.
Achieve Connect
Achieve Connect extends support to all 18 secondary schools in the project area, helping to drive system-wide development.
This includes CPD for school leaders / staff members, attendance initiatives, STEM and careers support, mental wellbeing programmes, and school support funds.
Why is Achieve different?
Achieve is long-term, evidence-informed, and collaborative. It centres on the Skills Builder[1] framework, essential and transferable skills that underpin personal development, employability, and life satisfaction.
It is delivered in partnership with schools, education authorities, and specialist organisations.
Partners include Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council, North Yorkshire Council, North Yorkshire Together, NYBEP, HeadStart South Tees, STEM Learning Ltd, Emotion Switch, North Yorkshire Coast Research School, and Skyblue Research.
The programme offers a wide range of activities, experiences, and opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach for many participants.
A key part of this is the trusted adult relationship provided through open-ended professional mentoring. Emerging evidence suggests that this is helping many of the young people to better understand and manage their emotions.
Early Impact of Achieve
Independent evaluation shows very encouraging outcomes including improved motivation and engagement, enhanced emotional regulation, and growing self-confidence, along with improvements in essential skills such as communication.