These initiatives offer vital pathways to enable young people to remain in learning and connect with further education, training and employment.
Erin is a perfect example of the benefit an innovative and flexible learning program can have in a young person’s life. She attended the YoYo (Youth Options Youth Outcomes) program at Hornsby TAFE.

Erin had been expelled from school and says she had ‘every acronym of behavioural problem under the sun.’ When she joined the program she was homeless.
Erin is now 26 years old and a training and placement consultant for disability services. Life has come full circle and Erin is now giving back to her community through her work. She refers young people back to the Yoyo program. Prior to this role, Erin was National Commissions Manager for a finance company, responsible for the commissions for 200 franchisees nationwide.

‘I was not your standard school stream kid,’ Erin said. ‘I didn’t like teachers telling me what to do. The flexible learning really helped. The teachers at Yoyo were focused on my personal issues. They believed that they had to heal a person before they can educate them.’
Erin says that if it wasn’t for the program and the staff that worked with her she would not be here today, ‘The staff at Yoyo saved my life and the lives of many others there.’

Ben, 16 years old, recently completed his Certificate I and II at the Yoyo program also. He is now studying a design fundamentals course at TAFE learning about 3D models and illustration.

He says the benefits of the program were the one-on-one with the teachers.

‘If you had a problem, they could come straight away and help you,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t as crowded as school. School wasn’t worth it to me.’