Honesty, Commitment

and Trust –
Delivering Training in Partnership with Young People
Acknowledgements

This resource has been made possible thanks to the support of

many individuals and organisations. In particular, we would like
to say a big thank you to:
Peer reviewers:
Gill Barn, Consultant
Mark Benson, Participation Manager, Action for Children
Hannah Rayfield, Consultant
Janine Young, NCB Participation Coordinator
The following people for their contributions of case
studies, resources, quotes and their time in being
interviewed:
Georgina Bednar, London Youth at Risk, The Children’s Society
Jo Broadwood, LEAP
Tom Burke, Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE)
Helen Carmichael, NCB
Val Carpenter, Diversity Hub
Ray Dalton, Hillingdon Children’s Rights Service
Gareth Davies, Terrence Higgins Trust (THT)
Janet Davies, 1319, Salford Foundation
Simon Machin, South Gloucestershire Council
Kate Martin, Council for Disabled Children (CDC)
Darren Matthews, British Youth Council (BYC)
Jane Menday, Children’s Rights Officers and Advocates (CROA)
Keji Okeowo, National Council for Voluntary Youth Services
(NCVYS)
Deepa Pagarani, NCB
Darren Sharpe, The National Youth Agency (NYA)
Alice Taylor, Children’s Workforce Development Council
(CWDC)
Debs Urch, Dorset Total Respect Group
Writers:
Jo Denoris and Rachel Monaghan
Contents

Introduction 2
The benefits of a co-training approach 5
The dynamics of co-training 11
A model for successful co-training 17

Practical matters 21
Key messages 29

1
 Introduction
Many organisations have an interest in engaging young people,
as paid or voluntary employees, to develop and deliver training.
This type of approach can vary from young people taking one
specific role such as making a prepared presentation during a
training session to them working in partnership, either with
each other or adults, to design and deliver training for groups
of adults or young people.
This resource will look primarily at how organisations support
and develop young people to work as partners to design and
deliver training. We will use the term ‘co-training’ and focus
on young people aged between 16 and 25 years old as
co-trainers.
Anyone with an interest in engaging young people as co-
trainers can make use of this resource. Based on information
gained through interviews with a range of organisations
already using co-training, two independent evaluation reports
and other supporting research, the resource explores:
• the benefits of a co-training approach
• the dynamics of co-training
• a model for successful co-training
• the practicalities of preparing for and developing co-training.
This resource also looks at the ethos of co-training – the fact
that the contribution of young people and adults is equally
valued and of equal worth. For example, the young person may
not be an experienced trainer but their experience of life as a
young person is equally as valuable as their co-trainer’s
expertise in training delivery.

Is co-training right for you?

How young people are involved as co-trainers varies
considerably and needs to be adapted for each individual
organisation and training programme.
Involving young people as co-trainers is not right for all
organisations or learning programmes and does require
considerable resources and commitment. Co-training can be
viewed as a continuum, the goal being that children and young
people are actively involved in decision-making and affecting
change at all stages of the project; however, this goal is not
something that a new group may be able to achieve initially.
Organisations’ knowledge about how best to support young
people as co-trainers grows over time, as do young people’s
skills and confidence. This is demonstrated by this example
from Diversity Hub, a leadership training organisation that
works with adults and young people from various backgrounds.