National Citizen Service For Teenagers

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Edit - National Citizen Service closed in 2025. My own teen took part in 2019 and really enjoyed the experience. 

My eldest daughter is turning sixteen this year, she is currently studying for her GCSE's and is seriously thinking about what she wants to do when she leaves school.  She will soon be venturing into the world of college and work and I often wonder if she is ready for it. So when I heard of National Citizen Service (NCS) I thought that this sounded like a brilliant programme to help equip and ready our teens for life after school. 

So what is National Citizen Service? 

Well NCS is a government backed programme which was established in 2011 to help build a more cohesive, mobile and engaged society. By bringing together young people from different backgrounds for a unique shared experience to become better individuals and in turn better citizens. 

NCS is open to 16 and 17-year-olds across England and Northern Ireland and is a three to four-week programme that takes place during the school holidays. The programme includes outdoor team-building exercises, a residential trip to help learn 'life skills', a community-based social action project and ends with a celebration event. 

The cost of your teenager taking part in this programme is just £50 which includes food, accommodation and travel costs, with bursaries available on a case by case basis. I think this is amazing value and it sounds like it will be such a worthwhile programme to take part in, as well as looking impressive on those all-important college application forms and CVs. 

The NCS programme is broken up into four phases, phase one is all about Adventure. For this young people live away from home with a group of 12-15 others at an outdoor activity centre, team-building exercises like rock climbing, zip-wiring, canoeing and archery will be on offer to help develop confidence and take them out of their comfort zones. 

The second phase is all about Discovery, staying in a uni-style residential environment it is a chance to learn something new and also develop important life skills for the future. 

The third phase is Social Action, your teenager will return to their local area and make a difference to their local community. 

The final phase is celebration, a chance to reward the hard work your teen has achieved by offering them discounts and exclusive access to apprenticeships and volunteering opportunities. This year more than 100,000 teenagers from different backgrounds will come together on NCS and there are still places available for current year 11 pupils to take part in this once in a lifetime opportunity this summer. 

If you have or know a teen make sure you get them to check NCS out as it is sure to be a once in a lifetime opportunity that would help build foundations for their future.