'People can do anything with right support'

WEBSITE LAUNCHED TO HELP STUDENTS WTH NEXT STEPS

- By JOSEPH RICHARDS

A NEW website has been launched to support school leavers in East Staffordshire with their next steps.

The county council launched the website to coincide with the buildup to GCSE results day tomorrow. It will give young people inspiration and advice about the range of options they can take after school, whatever their grades.

Chris Purcell is a tutor at Chameleon School of Construction, based in Burton-upon-Trent.

Having left school with no qualifications and chosen an alternative route himself, he now teaches young people practical construction skills whose talent would have gone to waste if only the traditional post-school courses were available.

Chris said: "I really didn’t get on at school, left early, and then spent time labouring on building sites until someone said that I could learn a trade.