Day of celebration for young people

Port Vale Football Club has welcomed 85 young people from the Prince’s Trust XL Programme to Vale Park for a day of celebration.

The school pupils from nine Stoke-on-Trent schools have been participating in a range of team-building exercises hosted by Commando Joes’ Fun and Fitness.

The day consisted of challenging mental and physical tasks where by the pupils had to work in teams and use all the skills they had acquired throughout the Prince’s Trust XL Programme.

Linda Norville, Prince’s Trust Senior Head of Education, Training and Development, said: “It’s a fantastic day, it has really helped that it is in a venue such as this one because it has given us all the space and the attraction for young people is the fact they’ve come to Port Vale Football Club.

“This is the first ever one the Prince’s Trust has done in the West Midlands, it’s our celebration day, we really wanted to bring the nine schools together and celebrate what the young people have been achieving.

The Prince’s Trust XL Programme is aimed at young people in their last couple years of school who are struggling for various reasons.

She said: “The idea with XL is to take a small group for half a day once a week into a XL club which the Prince’s Trust and its staff help to set up and support and through that processes they do projects and enterprising.

“Today has been about teamwork, communication, problem solving and they love the fact that it’s practical and interactive,” she said.

“The underpinning theme and purpose is that it helps towards the qualification they are doing with their XL club.

“Employers are looking for attitude and aptitude and how people can work with other people, and a lot of young people, particularly in XL have struggled to socialise and interact with other people.”