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War veterans set to mentor pupils
Military Veterans will be sent in to schools
Military veterans are to be sent into Lancashire secondary schools to act as mentors to pupils, council chiefs revealed today.
Lancashire County Council is to invest £3m over five years into training some of the county’s 18,000 veterans on how to speak to individual pupils and entire classes about issues such as discipline, self-esteem and confidence.
With the full agreement of schools, they will be sent in to give talks to classes or assigned to particular pupils who feel they are having difficulties in their school or personal lives.
Council bosses believe veterans will make ideal mentors and role models for pupils because of the respect they carry.
They have also been impressed with the range of skills veterans hold after setting up a link between the council and vets groups through a veterans champion - currently County Coun Mike France - a position which was established last year.
And they believe as well as helping the youngsters, the scheme will be an ideal way of getting veterans back into work and helping them adjust to civilian life after serving on operations. County Coun Geoff Driver, the leader of Lancashire County Council, said: “It is a double-edged benefit. One is to help a lot of veterans back into employment, because a lot of them find it very difficult.
“It will also benefit secondary school children, particularly those finding it difficult to know what they want to do.
“They will do a mixture of things - one-on-one where some young people want it or feel they could benefit from it and they could also talk to a whole form.
“One of the things they can teach is discipline and self-discipline and get these young people to raise they are part of a community.
“The thing that any veteran has, automatically from all of us, is respect - we all respect and admire what they do. You only need to speak to them and it makes you feel very humble.
“We have been so impressed with the contact we have had through our veterans champion we just feel there is a real role to be done there.”
All veterans who take part in the scheme will have to be CRB checked and some could be paid for the work they do.
County bosses will now go and speak to veterans associations about how the scheme should be run before approaching schools for their views.
No definite start date has been set, but the five year period over which the £3m will be invested begins on April 1.
The scheme is part of a £50m investment in several initiatives, including refurbishing libraries and a scheme to support employers to take on new apprentices.
The cash has come from a windfall after the council invested in the gilts market two years ago.
LCC Chief executive Phil Halsall said: “We shifted a lot of the council’s funds into gilts and these offer such security that, in the turbulent economic climate, they have since become very popular with other organisations looking for safer investments.
“That has enabled the council to sell on its gilts and generate this huge one-off windfall, which can now be pumped back into local services in Lancashire.”
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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