Personal development and life education are the focus of two new Transition Year programmes from Victim Support and the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association.

Victim Support's youth awareness programme is a crime prevention initiative which aims to "inform young people about the work of Victim Support; to educate them on the effects of crime on victims; to focus students' minds on their personal decisions and the consequences of their actions".

Students are shown a video of victims of crime recounting their experiences and receive a presentation from members of Victim Support. They are also encouraged to engage in group discussion about their ideas or experiences of crime. "It is imperative to implement a crime prevention programme among our young people," Lillian McGovern, CEO of Victim Support, says.

The Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association, in association with the Health Promotion Unit of the Department of Health and Children, has produced "Medicines & You", an education pack about the benefits of medicines and the need to use them responsibly.

The pack is divided into seven units including: getting the best from your medicines, preventing disease - the role of vaccination, researching and developing new medicines and the pharmaceutical industry in Ireland.

Each unit comes with teacher notes, a student information sheet (including a glossary) and a student activity sheet.

Medicines & You is suitable for both Transition Year and Leaving Cert Applied students and can be tailored to suit other groups.