Skills for life

What the NCS programme does

The NCS programme is designed for 16 and 17-year-olds to give them skills for later life.

Youngsters spend a few weeks in the summer or autumn at camps where they take part in outdoor activities such as mountaineering and canoeing.

They also design and help deliver projects for their local community – for example, helping with gardening, painting and removing litter.

The first programme involved just 158 teenagers but since than more than 600,000 have taken part.