EVERTON Football Club is to send 30 teenagers on a pioneering summer scheme.

The teenage volunteers, from all over Liverpool, who are approaching their final year of high school, must pledge to convert job skills gained from two weeks with the Blues’ official charity, Everton In The Community (EITC) into projects that will improve the places where they live.

The pilot programme is part of the government’s national citizenship scheme designed to tackle youth unemployment as well as giving teenagers what Prime Minister David Cameron termed a “a sense of purpose, optimism and belonging”.

Next month the recruits will give up two weeks of their summer holidays to enrol on the programme which consists of residential courses involving problem solving and team building activities and learning independent living skills. They will also spend the day working with staff at Goodison Park learning planning and marketing skills.

The government-funded scheme will culminate with the teenagers receive certificates to boost their CVs at a special event at Goodison Park on September 1.