Our proposed project 'a step nearer to the workplace' is designed to provide an opportunity for young people from diverse backgrounds, most of which are from lower class backgrounds with fewer opportunities. The foreign travel opportunity is aimed at developing a range of specific vocational skills whilst promoting good behaviours and allowing for the natural improvement of social elements such as communication, friendliness, optimism and confidence among our participants. AMsportstours provide many college students who are studying Higher National certificate (HNC) and Higher National Diploma (HND) in local colleges work experience coaching activities as part of developing their own skills and satisfying criteria of their respective course qualifications. It is from this that we recognised a real need for young people to be subject to a foreign travel experience to help further enhance not only their coaching skills but just as importantly their social skills. We understand through our work in different countries the challenges that need to be presented to stimulate development and this environment simply could not be created in Scotland. An idea that was very achievable for AMsportstours to develop through our expertise in both delivering and managing custom built travel experiences combined with our provision of work placement activities for students in the local area. Our target group for the project are students across four local colleges who are all completing work experience with AMsportstours and our sports coaching programmes in the local area as part of their own personal development and course requirements. In total we will provide work experience opportunities for 175 students, the students will be a mixture of males and females aged from 16 - 25 years old. We will engage each respective college where the students are studying and involve them in the selection process. This is important as we aim to create a good system in recruiting the most committed students who will clearly be influenced more by the learning outcomes of the project. The planned activities will consist of the participants following the working day of a professional coach from our host partners, whilst taking on more and more responsibility as the placement progresses. This is done on an individual basis as some participants who are more experienced are ready for the next challenge whereas other participants who are less experienced take extra time to build their confidence before this transition and this is how we can ensure that the placement is relevant and valuable to the specific training needs of each individual. The activities include the planning, delivery and evaluation of coaching sessions and participants will work alongside their designated mentor coach from the host partner. They will begin by following the working day of their mentor coach, which will entail getting up at 7am to prepare and travel to session venue, set up, deliver and then evaluate lessons learned. The participants will also attend workshops each day provided by our host partner on various elements of coaching, such as communication, methods and session development. Activities during days off on placement are important as participants are given freedom to explore the city and culture. We will arrange social activities for the participants to engage with the locals. This will be done through the arrangements of football, basketball and hockey fixtures as a few examples, against local teams from in and around Stockholm and Barcelona. We envisage the the project will increase the employment opportunities for the participants as they gain valuable coaching experience and also develop their own personality and character. In addition to this the recognition the participants are awarded from completion of the project can support their bid to stand out from the crowd when moving towards their next steps in further education or employment. The longer term benefit of our project is the continued and professional preparation of our young people in creating the platform to motivate them to develop and shape their personal pathways into employment in either the UK or oversees. This having a positive effect on the quality of our coaches and tackling youth unemployment rates in Scotland and the UK.