Thirty young people aged 9-18 from across England will make up the first RSC Youth Advisory Board (YAB), reporting to our Governers directly on our education work. 

Every year we meet hundreds of thousands of young people through our education and outreach programmes. The YAB will give them a voice to share their opinions and ideas directly with us as we plan for the future. The group will meet regularly throughout the year, with the hope that the young people will go on to join the RSC Board.

The YAB builds upon the Time to Listen study, which looked into the value arts and culture adds to education in schools. The research, conducted with Tate and the University of Nottingham, showed how arts education helps students develop their creative and critical thinking skills whilst also building their confidence, sense of identity and appreciation of diversity.

Jacqui O’Hanlon, Director of Education, said: “Time to Listen really drove home the extent to which young people’s views and opinions aren’t being heard. Our respondents told us overwhelmingly that they place enormous value on arts subjects and yet, the message they receive from home, school and universities is that those subjects are less valued than other subjects and, therefore, less valuable to them.

"The Youth Advisory Board and our ongoing Time to Listen campaign aims to redress some of that imbalance and give young people a platform to get their views and voices heard.”