NCS began in 2009 as the National Citizenship Service. It gone through various changes since then, but remains a personal and social development program for 16–17 year olds and currently is supported and largely funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
NCS say this about themselves "NCS is where young people can find their strengths and become world-and work-ready ".
Over 750,000 young people have already completed programmes with NCS, and in 2023 they’re offering a range of new experiences — 'away from home', 'local community', and 'online'.
Here's a link to their main website
Click on the "Experiences" tab to find out more about their new style programmes. These are generally relatively low cost for all that they include and if you various criteria, places can be fully funded via their bursary.
Their bursary eligibility criteria includes:
Their bursary eligibility criteria includes:
- You are care experienced.
- You have an Education, Health and Care Plan.
- You are a young carer.
- You are in receipt of free school meals.
- You live in a household in receipt of Universal Credit.