On July 15th, some of our North West Young Leaders group were given the opportunity to join the Northern Powerhouse's Education, Employment and Skills Summit (NPEESS2020), as part of an 'In Conversation' with Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham. 

Three of our Young Leaders and Power2 Programme Assistant Kaine Clark were selected for the youth panel and prepared questions for Daniel Kasmir, the Chief People & Procurement Officer at TalkTalk, and Andy Burnham.

You can watch their discussion with Daniel and Andy here: 

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We are enormously proud of how our young people conducted themselves during the Summit. They asked brilliant questions ranging from skills employers are looking for, to support for young people leaving care. They displayed fantastic maturity, being both respectful and inquisitive, and demonstrated a real understanding of the different issues young people are facing. Our Young Leaders showed us again why youth voice is so important and valuable in discussions like these. 

Henri Murison, the Director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, and chair of the discussion had this to say about their input: 

"This [session] has certainly been the most interesting part of the Summit so far and it's given us a really incredible set of insights into the real barriers to education and skills. You guys have really brought to life those issues so much better than anything else we've heard today... It really has been interesting to hear what you've got to say and I'm sure Andy and Daniel agree."

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Our Programme Assistant Kaine brilliantly summed up our feelings about the summit during the closing statements:

"I just want to say that I know from speaking to our young people before they came on this call, that they're really appreciative of being listened to, being noticed and being taken seriously. 

The young people we work with are really good young people and they know what they want from their futures and what steps need to be taken to support other young people in the same situations that they're in. So the fact that I've got three of the young people we've worked with on a call with three such influential people and on a panel with so many people listening to their responses, I know that they really will take so much out of this. So thank you for the opportunity!"

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