First skills successes for Essential People

Jan 22 2008 By The Journal

A new training programme which helps the unemployed learn and retain essential skills, has had its first two successes. Essential People, part of Working Links, has helped two South Tyneside women to gain the Level 1 ASDAN employability award. They are the first learners to successfully gain the award since Working Links established its dedicated skills division and began delivering the Employability Skills programme across the North-East on behalf of the Learning and Skills Council.

Carole Allan, 51, and Wendy Davies, 49, both from Hebburn, passed their assessments last month. Gaining the qualification helped Carole secure a job as a retail assistant, whilst Wendy plans to continue learning and is hoping to gain the City and Guilds Numeracy Level 1 qualification next year. Her long-term goal is to start a career in childcare.

Carole said: “I thoroughly enjoyed this course, especially working together as a group. I’ve learned how to use a computer, and also how to complete an application form which helped me get a temporary Christmas job at Next. I have not filled a form in for about 10 years, and I was pleasantly surprised when I got the job.”

Wendy added: “I felt really nervous when I first came to this course, but my tutor explained the tasks properly and made sure we understood what we needed to do, which put me at ease. The course was really interesting and doing it has allowed me to find out more about crèche work, which is something I really want to do.”

Essential People began offering the employability skills programme from August 2007. It is one of a range of programmes on offer to help people improve their basic literacy and numeracy and to give them the skills that will help them find – and stay in – employment. This includes maintaining work standards, communication skills and working as part of a team. Many of the programmes also include a period of work experience, which allows many people to gain some valuable experience in a real work environment.

Named after the importance of learners to the UK workforce, Essential People is the part of Working Links which delivers learning to meet both employer demands for skills and individuals’ learning needs. It provides innovative and interesting ways of gaining the skills needed to find work and progress once there, thereby promoting long-term sustainability and escape from poverty.

The range of programmes that Essential People delivers all focus on allowing people to develop their basic and employability skills in an imaginative and flexible way.

Learners aren’t put on the spot and tested on their knowledge in a traditional classroom environment. Instead, everyone has their own individual learning plan and the course content is tailored not just to learners needs but also to the location where they’re learning so that it is more relevant and engaging.

The ASDAN Employability Award is a nationally-recognised and approved qualification that gives people the skills and qualities employers are looking for.

It not only puts people in a stronger position to move into work, but can also provide a route into further education, for example for NVQ training.