Operating what its project leader Frank Graham calls “a strict referrals and selection procedure”, the scheme is only available to pupils approaching their final school year, for whom all mainstream support mechanisms have been exhausted.

“The selection is stringent and is based on interviews with the student, parents, school, social work and psychological services to gauge whether the young person has the wherewithal to handle the college environment,” says Mr Graham.

Each student receives an independent learning plan negotiated with his or her key worker. This consists of four elements:

* core skills of communicationsEnglish, numeracymaths, information technology and personal and social development, which are non-negotiable;

* a vocational element, designed to tap into the student’s interests. This can range from construction work to hairdressing, and the key worker will negotiate the student’s entry into a suitable college course or class;

* sports and outdoor activities. These are optional but students are encouraged to make use of college facilities and opportunities;

* work experience usually of one day per week on a vocational placement, though this does not apply to all students.

Fifteen-year-old Mark Donnelly started on New Directions in August last year and has been pursuing a course on construction work. Despite a history of behaviour and attendance problems at school, he has been excluded for for only one day since attending the New Directions base at the college.

Like a third of the New Directions students, Mark has learning difficulties but, with the grounding he has been given in construction work, he hopes to get an apprenticeship in the industry following a full-time national certificate course at the college when he leaves the project at Christmas.

“This is well better than school because you get treated more like an adult,” he says, “and the course is suited to what I want. I just didn’t get on at school. I attended but was always getting into trouble.”

Nicola Smith, also 15, was a non-attender for a large part of her school career. She is doing a national certificate in hairdressing - including work experience - and hopes to go full-time to Reid Kerr next session to start an HNC.

Both Nicola and Mark’s mothers speak readily of the change in their children: more motivated, more confident, better behaved at home. And both parents are in no doubt that the New Directions programme and staff have made the difference.

“It’s a good chance for the kids and it’s made a big change in Nicola,” says Mrs Smith.

Mrs Donnelly agrees. “This is a very important project,” she says. “I don’t know where Mark would have gone without it.

“He’s enthusiastic now. It’s been very good for him.”

Part of the success of the project lies in the small student-staff ratio. In the New Directions base within the college, the students are taught in classes ranging from one staff to four students minimum, or one to 16 maximum (with support).

They are never taught all together and it is unlikely they will share any classes in their college courses with other New Directions students.

“They are accepted by the other students and staff. There’s no stigma attached,” says Mr Graham.

Teamwork and positive reinforcement strategies are used by the eight staff members drawn from the college and from teaching and social-work backgrounds.

A merit system leads to group outings decided by the students or to individual awards of vouchers for books, CDs, phones or shops where they can purchase, say, hairdressing products.

The sports and outdoor activities element is used for team-building and all students are given interview training and practice. They also receive leaving certificates from Reid Kerr principal Joe Mooney at their leaving ceremony.

“I felt I was bullied a lot at school by other kids, older kids, and that’s why I stopped going. I lost a lot of my confidence,” says Nicola. “I’m still nervous but since I started in August I’ve made new friends. Here we’re all supposed to work as a team - and it works. I like what I’m doing.”

Developing the partnership between the local authority and the college, the council hopes to increase the numbers to 35 students next year.

One gauge of New Direction’s success is the destinations of last May’s leavers - 79 per cent went into full-time college or employmenttraining.

Another is the personal effect on the youngsters and their families. As Nicola’s mum says, “When she came here, it was like she grew up all of a sudden.”