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National Trust

The Prince’s Trust and the National Trust

What is Get into the Past?

Get into the Past is a unique and exciting collaboration between the National Trust and The Prince's Trust.

Funded by The Big Lottery, it offers personal development, vocational training, work placements and Development Awards for young people at 16 National Trust properties across the South West, East Midlands and North East.

How the partnership works

National Trust properties provide a venue, staff and resources to support young people on Team, Get into and long-term work placements, improving their self-confidence, mental and physical wellbeing and skills development.

Many of the young people on the Get into the Past programme have never visited a National Trust site before and this provides an interesting opportunity for them to experience something completely different and undertake training in a fantastic setting.

Get into the Past provides an unprecedented opportunity for long-term organisational learning, development and best practice across the two organisations and is effective at encouraging young people to make a positive contribution to their communities.

What activities have young people been involved in?

Team community project

• The Team at Saltram recreated a planned 18th century folly and created footpaths in the garden for visitor access to a WW2 bomb shelter.
• The young people at Ormesby turned a narrow, muddy woodland route into a pathway accessible to motorised buggy users.
• The Team at Trengwainton researched and constructed bird boxes to encourage nesting in the wooded areas of the property.

Get into programme

The Prince’s Trust has worked with staff at National Trust properties to run Get into programmes ranging from Customer Services to Gardening to Construction, providing young people with vocational training, qualifications, work experience and employability skills.

Get into Admin at Heelis enabled young people to experience, work and succeed in the National Trust’s central office. At Kingston Lacy young people gained LANTRA qualifications in a number of skills.

Long-term work placements

• After completing Get into Dry Stone Walling, Dan began a gardening placement at Ormesby Hall, taking part in training programmes to help his journey into full-time employment.
• Ricky completed Get into Customer Services at Cotehele and is now doing a 2-year apprenticeship alongside his placement in the restaurant as a trainee chef.
• Sam took part in Get into Admin at Heelis and began a placement within the Conservation department, moving on to a part-time paid job with the Youth Offending Team in Swindon.