Esports, NEETs, & Social Inclusion
Wednesday 15 July 2026 - 10:00-16:00
Across Europe, one in nine young people is not in education, employment or training - and for many, traditional services struggle to reach them. This one-day event, supported by the Manchester Game Centre and the Institute for Children's Futures, brings together international researchers and frontline practitioners to ask an important question: how can gaming and esports become a bridge back into learning, work and the community?
Researchers will share what evidence shows about structured, supported gaming - how it builds skills, wellbeing and a route back into learning – alongside practitioners from YMCA esports and youth-work programmes across Scotland and Ireland sharing what works on the ground, and for whom.
Interested in attending? Places are limited. To request a spot, contact Tom Brock at t.brock@mmu.ac.uk - please include a line on your role or organisation. The afternoon workshop is invite-only.
Draft Event Programme
10:00–10:15 - Welcome - Tom Brock, Manchester Metropolitan University
Setting the scene for a day exploring how gaming and esports can re-engage young people and connect them to education, work and community.
10:15–10:35 - The Digital Gymnasium: Gaming as a Tool for Inclusion and Citizenship - Stéphan Euthine, NECC
An innovative community model using gaming and digital culture to build social skills, citizenship and pathways to education and employment, drawing on practical experience from France and the Indian Ocean region.
10:35-10:55 - From Sanctuary to Sinkhole: Can Gaming and Esports Help Re-Engage Marginalised Young People? - Mike Trotter, Halmstad University
For many young people gaming is a sanctuary, but it can tip into withdrawal. This talk asks how structured gaming and esports environments can become a bridge back to education, community and opportunity.
10:55-11:15 - Relationships First: Mentoring, Prevention and the Foundations of Youth Work - Colin MacFarlane, YMCA Scotland
How relationship-based practice and mentoring programmes form the bedrock of effective youth work, and the foundation that digital and esports engagement builds upon.
11:15-11:30 - Break
11:30-11:50 - Evidence-Based Evaluation: Educ Esport Initiative in Secondary Education - Nico Besombes, Université Paris Cité
A large-scale, multi-year evaluation of structured esports in secondary schools, measuring the effects on school climate, engagement and cognitive and digital skills to inform evidence-based practice.
11:50-12:10 - Collaborate or Die! Facilitated Gaming as Pedagogy - Supporting Social Inclusion of Vulnerable Youth Through Facilitated Gaming - Thorkild Hanghøj, Aalborg University
Empirical findings from Danish research projects showing how facilitated, co-located gaming can foster belonging, wellbeing and social inclusion among vulnerable and neurodivergent young people.
12:10-12:30 - From The Brave Jnr to Esports Academies - Emma Williamson, YMCA Wishaw
The journey from a grassroots idea to structured esports programmes that reach some of the hardest-to-engage young people, and the pathways into confidence, qualifications and employment they create.
12:30-12:50 - Esports, NEETs and Social Inclusion - Dean Nutt, YMCA Larne
How esports can engage young people who are not in education, employment or training, offering a positive, accessible entry point that builds relationships, skills and progression - when designed with purpose and safeguarding at its core.
12:50-13:10 - From NEET to LEET: a gameful way back into education and work - Tobias Scholz, University of Agder
Reframing NEET young people as "looking for education, employment and training," this talk draws on Norway's first gaming-based work-preparation programme to show how gaming can be the door back in.
13:10-14:00 - Lunch
13:55-16:00 - Invite-only workshop & research consensus building