Bravory • Teen confidence in Leicester & Leicestershire
Confidence Building for Teenagers and Young Adults in Leicester and Leicestershire
The move from teenager to young adult is full of opportunities — but opportunities only matter if a young person feels confident enough to take them.
Bravory helps teenagers and young adults across Leicester and Leicestershire develop practical confidence, resilience, communication and independence so they can take the next step into college, university, an apprenticeship, employment and adult life with greater belief in themselves.
The aim is not to turn a quiet young person into the loudest person in the room. It is to help them trust themselves enough to speak up, make decisions, handle setbacks and take opportunities they might otherwise avoid.
A problem many parents recognise
What happens when your teenager has opportunities but does not believe they are ready for them?
This can be one of the hardest things for a parent to watch.
Your teenager may have ability.
They may have qualifications.
They may even know what they would like to do next.
Yet when an opportunity becomes real, confidence disappears.
They may decide not to apply for the course.
They may avoid the apprenticeship because the interview worries them.
They may say university is not for them when the real concern is moving away or meeting new people.
They may want a part-time job but never actually send the application.
They may know exactly what they want to say but become silent when they need to speak to an unfamiliar adult.
Signs confidence may be holding them back
- They avoid applying for opportunities.
- They worry excessively about interviews.
- They overthink simple decisions.
- They compare themselves constantly with other people.
- They struggle to speak to unfamiliar adults.
- They avoid asking questions.
- They give up quickly after rejection.
- They rely heavily on parents to organise things for them.
- They seem capable of far more than they are willing to attempt.
Bravory calls this the Confidence Gap: the distance between what a young person is capable of doing and what they currently believe they can do.
Why this matters in Leicester
Leicester offers young people plenty of routes forward. Confidence can determine whether they use them.
Young people growing up in Leicester and Leicestershire have a wide range of possible next steps.
They may choose sixth form, college, university, vocational training, an apprenticeship, employment or a combination of work and continued learning.
Leicestershire County Council specifically supports young people aged 16–19 into education, employment and training, while Leicester City provides careers and employment support through services including Connexions and the Leicester Employment Hub.
The county also highlights apprenticeships, volunteering and work experience as ways for young people to build skills, workplace experience and confidence.
You can find official information here: Leicestershire County Council careers advice for young people .
The opportunities exist.
But a young person still needs enough confidence to make the phone call, fill in the application, walk into the interview, travel independently, ask the question and deal with the possibility that they might not get the answer they hoped for.
Opportunity matters. So does having the confidence to step towards it.
Preparing for adulthood
Being ready for adult life involves more than exam results.
Leicester City Council's current Preparing for Adulthood Strategy covers young people aged 14–25 and focuses on helping them move towards healthy, independent and fulfilling adult lives.
That is an important idea.
We quite rightly spend years helping teenagers prepare academically for the future.
But adulthood also asks them to do things that rarely appear on an exam paper.
Can they...
- speak to somebody they do not know?
- make an appointment?
- ask for help?
- deal with criticism?
- admit a mistake?
- manage a difficult conversation?
Can they...
- travel independently?
- make decisions?
- recover after rejection?
- take responsibility?
- handle uncertainty?
- keep going when things become difficult?
These are confidence skills.
They are also life skills.
And they become increasingly important as a young person moves from school into the next stage.
For parents and guardians
How do you help a teenager become more confident without constantly rescuing them?
Parents naturally help.
If a teenager dislikes phone calls, we make the call.
If they do not know what to write, we write the email.
If they are nervous about asking something, we ask for them.
In the short term, the problem disappears.
But something else may also disappear:
the opportunity for the young person to discover that they could have handled it.
Confidence grows when support changes from “I'll do it for you” to “I'll help you work out how to do it.”
Ask before rescuing
Try asking, “What part of this could you do yourself if I helped you prepare?”
Reduce the size of the challenge
If the whole task feels overwhelming, find the smallest useful action.
Notice progress
Praise courage, judgement, persistence, communication and recovery — not only the outcome.
If starting these conversations is difficult, Bravory also offers a free Parent Conversation Kit covering confidence, friendships, pressure, school, motivation and the future.
For teenagers and young adults
If you want to feel more confident, you do not need to wait until you feel ready.
This is one of the biggest misunderstandings about confidence.
People often think:
“Once I feel confident, I'll do it.”
But confidence often works the other way around.
You do something while feeling uncertain.
You survive it.
Sometimes it even goes well.
And afterwards you have evidence that you can cope.
You might want more confidence to...
- apply for college or university;
- go to an apprenticeship interview;
- start your first job;
- meet new people;
- speak in class;
- make decisions for yourself;
- stop worrying so much about what people think;
- deal with rejection;
- become more independent.
Start by noticing what is holding you back
Bravory's free confidence quizzes explore overthinking, resilience, independence, social confidence and fear of other people's opinions.
They are not diagnoses or tests.
They are simply designed to help you notice one area where a small change could make life easier.
The 5% Challenge
Instead of trying to become confident overnight, become 5% braver.
Big changes can be intimidating.
Small changes are easier to practise.
So instead of asking:
“How do I become a confident person?”
ask:
“What would 5% braver look like today?”
It might mean sending the application.
Making the phone call.
Saying hello first.
Asking one question.
Travelling somewhere on your own.
Or telling somebody what you actually think.
Confidence usually grows through dozens of these ordinary moments rather than one enormous act of bravery.
Confidence for work and apprenticeships
The first job asks young people to use confidence in a completely different way.
A young person may have spent years in school surrounded by familiar adults, routines and expectations.
Then suddenly an employer expects them to introduce themselves, ask questions, manage their time, take feedback and solve problems.
Leicestershire County Council's own apprenticeship information highlights qualities such as communication, teamwork, independence, motivation and time management.
Those skills are not separate from confidence.
They rely on it.
Interview confidence
Learn to answer questions, talk about yourself positively and recover if you lose your train of thought.
Workplace confidence
Ask questions, communicate with colleagues, accept feedback and speak up when something is unclear.
Independent confidence
Manage time, make decisions and take responsibility without needing somebody else to organise every step.
A structured route
Why pay for a confidence programme when there is free advice everywhere?
Teenagers already have access to almost unlimited information.
They can search Google, watch videos, ask AI and scroll through thousands of motivational posts.
The problem is rarely knowing that confidence would be useful.
The problem is turning knowledge into behaviour.
Bravory's 6-Week Teen Confidence Mastery Programme gives the young person a route to follow.
Understand
Recognise where self-doubt, avoidance and overthinking get in the way.
Practise
Use practical communication, confidence and resilience tools.
Apply
Take small brave actions in real life and build evidence that change is possible.
The core programme is online and self-directed.
That matters because some of the young people who could benefit most from confidence development may be the least comfortable walking into a room full of strangers labelled “confidence course”.
Bravory allows them to begin privately, at their own pace, and practise the learning in their own world.
The Bravory approach
The BRAVE Method
Bravory breaks confidence development into five practical areas.
Understand strengths and challenge unhelpful self-talk.
Learn to respond when things do not go to plan.
Take useful steps instead of waiting to feel ready.
Speak up, communicate and ask for help.
Notice what you have handled and build trust in yourself.
A simple way to understand confidence
Think of confidence as a bank account.
Every time a young person does something slightly difficult for themselves, they make a deposit.
- Applying for the apprenticeship.
- Going to the interview.
- Speaking to the college tutor.
- Travelling somewhere independently.
- Asking the employer a question.
- Trying again after rejection.
- Introducing themselves to somebody new.
- Having an awkward conversation.
- Making a decision without asking everybody else first.
Each experience adds evidence.
Eventually the message changes from:
“I hope nothing difficult happens.”
to:
“If something difficult happens, I am becoming better at handling it.”
Experience behind Bravory
About Adrian Close, founder of Bravory
I created Bravory after spending much of my working life helping people develop confidence, communication, leadership, resilience and the ability to deal with difficult situations.
My experience with young people has included supporting young people through sport, working with young people in the United States through Camp America, school leadership development and years of involvement with the Duke of Edinburgh's Award.
Today I live in the East Midlands and continue to work directly with teenagers and young adults through schools and youth-development activities.
Professionally, I am Director of Learning at Ultimate Leadership Training, where I train adults, managers and leaders.
One of the reasons I created Bravory was that I kept meeting adults who were trying to learn skills they could have benefited from years earlier:
- how to speak up;
- how to make decisions;
- how to handle difficult conversations;
- how to recover after failure;
- how to communicate confidently;
- and how to trust themselves.
Bravory takes those practical development principles and introduces them earlier.
Leicester and the wider county
Confidence support for teenagers and young adults across Leicester and Leicestershire
The core Bravory programme is online, so young people do not need to travel into Leicester city centre to take part.
Bravory can be accessed by families across Leicester and Leicestershire, including:
- Leicester
- Oadby
- Wigston
- Loughborough
- Hinckley
- Market Harborough
- Coalville
- Melton Mowbray
- Blaby
- Enderby
- Narborough
- Braunstone
- Syston
- Countesthorpe
- Lutterworth
- Ashby-de-la-Zouch
- Shepshed
- Mountsorrel
- Birstall
- Leicestershire
If you are a parent in Oadby worried that your teenager is holding back, a young person in Loughborough preparing for university or work, somebody in Hinckley worrying about an interview, or a family in Market Harborough looking for a structured confidence programme, Bravory can be accessed online.
Schools, colleges, youth organisations and community groups across Leicester and Leicestershire can also contact Bravory about confidence, student leadership and personal-development support.
For DofE participants
Confidence development and the Duke of Edinburgh's Award
Teenagers across Leicester and Leicestershire also take part in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, where independence, resilience, teamwork and responsibility become practical rather than theoretical.
Bravory founder Adrian Close has experience supporting young people taking part in Bronze, Silver and Gold DofE activities.
Bravory also has an adapted confidence and personal-development route that may be proposed for a Bronze or Silver Skills section, subject to prior approval by the young person's DofE Leader.
Explore the Bravory DofE Skills route →
Bravory is an independent programme and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or currently registered as an official DofE Approved Activity Provider. Participants should obtain approval from their DofE Leader before beginning the proposed activity.
Choosing the right support
Bravory is confidence and personal-development training — not therapy
A teenager can lack confidence without having a mental-health condition.
Bravory is designed to help young people practise confidence, resilience, communication, decision-making and independence.
It does not provide diagnosis, counselling, psychotherapy or medical treatment.
If a young person is experiencing severe anxiety, depression, trauma, self-harm, an eating disorder, abuse, safeguarding concerns or immediate risk, please seek appropriate support from a qualified professional, GP, school safeguarding lead or emergency service.
Frequently asked questions
Questions about confidence support for teenagers in Leicester
How can I help my teenager become more confident?
Give them safe opportunities to act independently. Encourage them to make decisions, speak for themselves, try unfamiliar situations and recover after mistakes. Confidence becomes stronger when a young person gathers evidence that they can cope.
Can Bravory help with confidence before an apprenticeship or first job?
Yes. Bravory develops practical confidence, communication, resilience and independence, which can help young people prepare for interviews, speaking to employers, asking questions, handling feedback and adapting to new environments.
Can Bravory help a teenager preparing for university?
Yes. The programme includes confidence, communication, decision-making, resilience and independence — skills that can help young people prepare for the transition into university and more independent adult life.
Is Bravory only for shy young people?
No. A young person can appear confident socially but still overthink decisions, avoid opportunities, struggle with rejection or worry constantly about other people's opinions.
Do we need to live in Leicester city?
No. The programme is online and can be accessed from Oadby, Wigston, Loughborough, Hinckley, Market Harborough, Coalville, Melton Mowbray, Ashby-de-la-Zouch and elsewhere in Leicestershire.
My teenager would refuse to attend a confidence class. Could Bravory still help?
The core programme is online and self-directed. This allows a young person to begin privately rather than being asked to attend a group session before they feel ready.
Can Bravory support DofE development?
Bravory founder Adrian Close has experience supporting Bronze, Silver and Gold DofE participants. Bravory also has a personal-development route that may be proposed for the Bronze or Silver Skills section with prior approval from the participant's DofE Leader.
Is Bravory therapy?
No. Bravory is confidence and personal-development training and should not replace appropriate professional mental-health, medical or safeguarding support.
Can I contact Adrian before deciding?
Yes. Parents and guardians are welcome to ask questions before deciding whether Bravory feels appropriate for their young person. Email contact@adrianclose.com .
The next brave step
The future can offer plenty of opportunities. Confidence helps young people take them.
A young person does not need to know exactly where life is taking them.
They do not need to feel fearless.
But they do need to become increasingly willing to try, speak, decide, recover and take responsibility.
If you are a teenager or young adult in Leicester or Leicestershire who wants to become more confident, resilient and independent — or a parent who can see that your young person is capable of more than they currently believe — Bravory provides a practical place to begin.
Bravory — Turning Every Story into a Brave Future.
