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Rewarding and fun: working as a Peer Educator

4th September 2019

Over the last few months we’ve been blogging about the work our Straight Talking Peer Educators do in schools, drawing on their own experiences to educate young people about early parenthood and helping them learn about making healthy choices.

But the scheme has a lot of benefits for the Peer Educators themselves, too.

That’s because the point of Straight Talking’s Peer Educators scheme is not only to reduce teenage pregnancy and child sexual exploitation in the UK, but to support teenage parents to achieve economic wellbeing and quality of life.

Paid work with training

The work is paid (including expenses), with full training, and flexible enough to fit around childcare and other needs – so it offers really good work experience for young parents, many of whom have not had a career before, and opens the door to potential longer term employment.

As well as the training the Peer Educators receive through Straight Talking – which includes things like classroom management and presentation skills, and workshops on the subjects covered in the sessions, including child sexual exploitation – they can take advantage of further training through Gateway. This includes things like our own Safeguarding and Health and Safety courses, and courses from external providers, such as Umbrella sexual health services.

Two of our Peer Educators, Che and Casey, have already moved up to become Assistant Co-ordinators, a salaried part-time role with more responsibilities, including things like interviewing new recruits and calling schools to book sessions.

“Sometimes problem-solving in the classroom means managing challenging groups of students; having behaviour management training from Straight Talking has made me more confident when overcoming this problem and has helped improve my decision-making skills.”
— Natalie, in her latest feedback

New confidence and new friends

When delivering sessions in schools or youth groups, the Peer Educators are the experts. With the support of their colleagues and the training they’ve been given, they use their own experiences to share knowledge and open up discussions with the children, and get the whole classroom listening to and engaging with the topics they cover. All of our Peer Educators say they find the work empowering and rewarding, and that it is helping them to build confidence in other areas of their life, too.

And, importantly, working for Straight Talking also offers the opportunities for new friendships. Being a young parent can be very isolating, but working for Straight Talking means they have the opportunity to meet and work with others who understand what it’s like and can empathise. Many have gone on to make friendships outside work with other young parents, which could otherwise have been difficult.

Overall, the Peer Educators that have worked for us so far have found it an incredibly positive experience. Don’t take our word for it, though: listen to our Peer Educators talking about what it’s like to work for Straight Talking!

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