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Support for young people
 Rural Renaissance funds have enabled the Somerset Rural Youth Project to provide two major projects to specifically benefit young people in rural areas. At the Exmoor Rural Skills Workshop (ERSW) at Simonsbath, the project targets final year groups of young people from local schools and Pupil Referral Units (PRU) in Western Somerset who will use the ERSW facilities one day per week during their final year in formal education. They receive practical instructions in rural skills leading towards a variety of appropriate qualifications and guided learning on issues of employability (writing CVs, interview practice, employer expectations etc). When they leave formal education they will be supported and tracked on their progress towards work.
With the rurality.com project operating across the County, 500 under-skilled or unemployed young people in rural areas have accessed information and advice, and in excess of 100 have then gone on to obtain career-enhancing training and employment opportunities offered by partner organisations.
 The Rural Transport Project will provide transport for 200 learners living in rural Somerset to enable them to have access to CMT Services Learning Centres in order for them to gain basic skills and a vocational qualification - particularly areas that are not on main public transport routes.
In West Somerset, the New Horizons Farm Unit project will provide a first class purpose built training facility for West Somerset Community College which meets the training needs of both young people and adults in the land based sector in West Somerset. Through this the project aims to address the skills gap in the land based sector in an isolated rural area experiencing significant social and economic deprivation.
New for 2008-9, Somerset Rural Youth Project's Project Greenskill introduces young people to land-based and environmental skills through a co-ordinated programme of volunteering.
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