The NYA Blog
Daughters to Work Day
14 December 2009
Read Laura Hargrave's blog about the day she spent shadowing her Dad at the National Youth Agency
On the 11th of December for ‘Daughters to Work Day’ I shadowed my Dad, Simon Hargrave, for the day. My Dad runs the The Youth of Today programme at the National Youth Agency.
At first we went to the National Youth Agency’s office in Leicester, I was quickly welcomed by the friendly staff and I soon found myself with a cup of tea! I was then asked to read some of the NYA’s magazines and give some truthful feedback about what I thought of them. I thought the magazines were really well laid out and very informative. I then had to bid farewell because Dad and I were off to catch the train to London!
The train was delayed because a bus had hit a bridge near the station, but we eventually arrived in London at 12.35. We took the underground from Kings Cross to Old Street on the Northern Line. From there we walked to the Changemakers (one of the seven ‘The Youth of Today’ partners) office. Changemakers aim to enable young people to lead. There we met Chris Kemp, who is their programme manager. He works directly with the young people on the Changemakers’ programme. Today he was welcoming the new apprentices to the programme. There were 6 apprentices in total and they will be involved for 18 months. These apprentices are learning to be junior youth workers (which I found out was like being a big brother or sister to the young people they work with) and they formally start on the 11th January.
After this meeting we walked down the road to Moorgate tube station and caught a tube straight to Farringdon tube station. We then walked to the UKYP (UK Youth Parliament) head office in Clerkenwell Green.
When we arrived the UKYP we met with Andy Hamflett and Blossom Young. They talked about the ‘shadow a minister’ scheme. This is when a young person follows a Government Minister around for the day. As with the other work on the Youth of Today this scheme is aimed at disadvantaged young people. The day shows how hard you have to work and what kind of decisions you have to make as a Minister. The UKYP try to get the message across that young people today are involved in society’s decision making, and in my opinion this is working. Take the latest shadower for example, he followed a minister around for the day impressing the minister. The young person is now seriously considering a career in politics!
I learned a lot from this day, and I feel it was very informative. Thank you everyone who let me visit and listen in, I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Laura Hargrave, aged 13.
Hi! This day sounded great! xxx
Posted by Issy Shortt on 20/01/2010