Bucks Youth Summit 2025 – The Life After School Space
About The Life After School Space 2025
In the Life After School Space, various organisations came together to engage 86 young people in discussions and activities focused on their next steps after school. These included exploring their confidence in life skills, their hopes for further education or careers in the future and support and guidance on CV writing.
The Life After School Space was hosted by young people from the Youth Voice Executive Committee, a Buckinghamshire Council work experience student, teams from Buckinghamshire New University, an Art Therapist and Music Therapist and facilitator from Young Creative Bucks, teams from Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust, as well as Heart of Bucks, Young Futures Fund teams and Bucks Skills Hub.
Activities in the Life After School Space
Art and Music Therapists
- Young creative Bucks ran this part of the space
- Second year attending the Summit, building on 2024’s findings
- Young creative Bucks wrote a report on their reflections and findings from the space
Read the Young Creative Bucks Report here
Read more about Young Creative Bucks
Ambitions After School and Career Zone
- The Ambitions After School section was ran by a young facilitator doing Work Experience at Bucks Council and a member of the Youth Voice Executive Committee
- The space included a voting station where young people were asked what they want to do after School
(The outcomes from the Ambitions after school table are here – INSERT HERE )
- The Career zone section was ran by Buckinghamshire New University
- The space had CV information and guidance for young people and asked young people questions on what makes a good or bad CV
Life Skills and Confidence top tips
- The confidence top tips section was run by Bucks Skills Hub
- Young people wrote on post-it notes on a large poster giving each other top tips about confidence and being brave.
- The Life Skills section was run by Bucks Healthcare Trust and Heart of Bucks, Young Futures Fund
- The section included a voting station where young people voted on how confident they felt at everyday tasks such as ‘How confident are you are you with budgeting your money?’
What did the young people say in the Life After School Space?
- Most of us are hoping to go to university after school, but lots of us want to get a job / apprenticeship instead.
- We would like to see a combined approach to work experience, with in-person and virtual elements. The virtual elements should be shorter, informative preparation for the in-person placement.
- Most of us know where to go to for support with life after school – from our career leaders, teachers, and parents/carers.
- We would like PSHE lessons to help educate and prepare us for modern working styles, such as working from home, hybrid working and frontline working.
- We’re not yet thinking about part-time work, but we recognise that we can gain important employability skills from our hobbies and interests, such as leadership, teamwork, and communication. Most of us are already doing some kind of volunteering.
- We recognise the importance of seeking a career doing something we enjoy.
- We rated our confidence in a range of life skills. Budgeting and laundry came up as the biggest skills gaps!
- We value PSHE and would like more of it, especially around mental Health and drugs, vaping, alcohol misuse, and being exposed to influencing online.
So what?
- Aiming to present findings to the charity Oasis Partnership to inform the support they offer in the community
- Young Creative Bucks wrote a report of their reflections from the day
- The outcomes from the Ambitions after school table will be shared with the Careers leads network
- The outcomes will be shared with the organisations involved in the Life After School Space
Read the Young Creative Bucks Report here
Read more about Young Creative Bucks
Read more and view the report on the voting station