Our Voice, Our Vote, Our Future: Learn Real Life is our project that gives young people in Carmarthenshire the opportunity to highlight the issues that matter to them. Our project is all about making sure that our voices are heard and taken into account by decision makers with the aim of improving the services we receive or to make a difference to the issues that affect our lives. We’re talking about things like education, mental health, community services, and more.
After we collected the responses the Our Voice Ballot, (please click here for background information) Teach Real Life Lessons In School was voted by young people as the most important issue, this became the Youth Council’s priority issue for the year. Over the past 18 months, we completed research, surveys, ran focus groups, held ballots and organised events to hear directly from young people Carmarthenshire.
We pushed for change and created the ‘Learn Real Life’ event to listen to young people’s views and experiences about the real-life lessons in their education setting. Held in February 2025, the Our Voice: Learn For Life event was a great success, supported by a number of our Secondary Schools, Decision Makers and Managers from Carmarthenshire County Councils Education Department, they worked together and participated in activities designed to gather their feedback on their experiences with real-life lessons being taught in schools.
Our member Bethan said “I had the opportunity to host the event, and I was nervous before starting but after some time I gained more confidence to speak in front of the young people, teachers and guests. It was also informative to hear the different perspectives from different schools. I find it very interesting how one school can be taught something different from another.”
We are happy to share with you our recently completed Learn Real Life Zine on the findings and feedback we received from young people who attended the event.
The Zine shares views on:
★ What life lessons do young people think they have learnt in school.
★ Explores views on the challenges and opportunities needed to navigate through everyday life.
★ Illustrates areas such as digital skills in future work, social and emotional challenges that need to be improved.
Click here to read our Learn Real Life Zine.
By running “Our Voice, Our Vote, Our Future”, we ensure that young people’s needs remain at the heart of local decision making. It’s our future so let’s make this count! We are excited to be attending Carmarthenshire Headteachers’ meetings before the Summer to share our findings and highlight the feedback to those who can make a difference.
To be involved in the conversation please leave a comment below or follow us on social media.
Article by
Bethan Jones
