Youth Employment and Training Resource Unit (YETRU)

The YTS Research (Monitoring) Project was formed in 1984 with funding from West Midlands County Council. Through research, campaigning & advice work it aimed to highlight & address the effects of un/employment & training on the lives of young people (16 - 25). YETRU was particularly concerned with the prevalence and adverse effect of racial discrimination within the youth training schemes.

For reasons of administrative convenience, workers were nominally employed by TURC, with powers of management delegated to a separate Project Management Committee, nominated by Birmingham Trades Council. Whilst designated as a sub-committee of the TURC Management Committee, the Project Management Committee's membership consisted of 3 WMCC councillors, 1 representative from Birmingham Trades Union Council and 1 from TURC Management Committee. These all possessed full voting rights, and a place for a delegate from the Regional Trades Union Congress was available, although not taken up. A representative from the Campaign for Racial Equality in MSC Programmes [CREMP] also attended, but without voting rights. This pattern altered over time, but retained the core pattern of BTC and funder representation.

TURC amalgamated YETRU into the Centre's management structure in 1989. This was undertaken as a device to reduce the workload of representatives of Birmingham Trades Union Council who had previously attended separate management committees for TURC and YETRU. Funding and recruitment / retention difficulties led to the Unit's closure on 31st March 1992, TURC then directly undertaking an element of work around issues affecting young people.