New course boosts young people’s confidence and creative skills

Seven young people have completed a creative writing and drama course which marked the highest ever level of qualification delivered at Bridges Project.

Named Express Yourself, the course was delivered over eight weeks in collaboration with Borders College. It was offered through Bridges Project’s Spark Your Future service, which is funded by East Lothian Council's No One Left Behind Employability Grants Programme as part of the UK Government's UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

During the eight weeks, young people gained an insight into a wide range of elements within the fields of creative writing and drama. This included hands-on experience on script analysis, character development, storyboarding, acting, directing and writing.

To complete the course, all of the participants had to produce their own piece of writing. For many of the young people, this was a useful opportunity to complement their school work.

17-year-old Kerra Stewart, who attends Musselburgh Grammar School, wrote a short story which she used for her Higher English portfolio.

“I enjoyed the course and writing my short story and it helped me a lot for my portfolio at school. I also learned different techniques that can help me in a job in the future,” she said.

For her twin sister Dayle, the creative writing and drama course was even more directly linked to her preferred career path.

 “I want to become an English teacher so the course has helped me,” said Dayle, who wrote an extract of an apocalyptic story for the course.

She also believes Express Yourself was highly beneficial for both her personal development and her skills development.

“It developed my writing and presenting skills and also built my confidence. I got to communicate with new people and it helped me feel more comfortable to speak to people in a room and present,” said the 17-year-old.

Bridges Project’s Neil Maclean, who co-organised the course, also highlights the young people’s personal development as one of the main successes of Express Yourself.   

“They saw a massive boost to their confidence. At the beginning of the course, they did not want to read up any of their own writing but at the end, they were happy to share what they had written with their peers. That personal development growth that they experienced during the lifetime of the course was amazing to witness,” he said.

In addition to the boost to their confidence and skills, young people also gained 1.5 SCQF Level 5 units accredited from Borders College for completing the course. This marks a historic moment as the highest level of qualification that has ever been delivered at Bridges Project.

“The course was at a very high level and very involved. It incorporated a lot of theory and principles from different discipline of creative writing, which meant that young people had to self-study quite a bit,” said Neil.

He was impressed by how the participants took to the challenge.

“They just took to it and were intent on achieving their qualification, which was incredible to see,” said the co-organiser.

Neil also praised Borders College for making Express Yourself possible.

“The College went out of their way to help us establish the course, make it accredited and start it in a timely manner. I would like to say a massive thank you to them,” he said.

Liz King, Skills Accreditation Programme Advisor at Borders College, said it was a ‘pleasure to be involved in such an exciting project and to see the achievements of the young people.’

She said:

“We enjoyed working collaboratively with Neil and the Bridges Project team to develop the unit and provide accreditation and certification through Borders College.”

Ms King added:

“I was impressed with the quality of the young people’s portfolios. The work produced was excellent and reflected the development of their knowledge, skills and confidence through working on the unit. It was evident that a huge amount of time and dedication from Neil and Mihalis [Michailidis, Express Yourself Co-coordinator] had gone into delivery, assessment and verification, and also from the learners themselves, to complete it successfully.”