What is special about this project?
Support and drive for the initiative from the Council’s Chief Executive was instrumental in the programme’s success. For example, it enabled the Employment Unit’s manager to use the Unit’s own resources to gap-fund the implementation of Construction JOBMatch, when no mainstream funding had been agreed.
Having a dedicated Employment Unit within the Council, acting as the unique broker and delivery body, brought invaluable expertise from managing previous employment initiatives. Furthermore, the Unit’s history of partnership working with deliverers of the local publicly-funded investment schemes was crucial in procuring leverage.
Effective partnership
working was critical
in securing funding
The Employment Unit recognised that the programmes needed to be tailored to suit the needs of hard-to-reach individuals as well as employers, rather than the centrally-planned requirements of mainstream public funding bodies and training providers. Minimising bureacracy and maximising personal contact, with pastoral support, proved vital in winning the trust and dedication of potential recruits.
What can be learned?
The following factors were acknowledged as critical to the success of the programme:
• Engaging with the community and publicising the programme through trusted community- based brokering agencies
• A thorough yet non-intimidating recruitment process involving:
- minimal form-filling
- several panel interviews and two ½-day workshop sessions, adjudicated by construction industry experts
• Offering trainees a genuine job from the outset, in addition to a guarantee of industry-accredited qualifications within the 2 years
• Intensive trainee support, both pastoral (eg. mentoring) and in terms of basic skills (extra courses laid on where necessary, in eg. IT and English), sustained throughout the 2-year programme
Sheffield City Council’s employment and skills strategy, which audited and identified the city’s hard-to-reach communities and their skills needs, has been crucial in procuring funding and support from public funding programmes which have inclusion as a requirement.
Topics associated with this project
Economy, Training, Yorkshire and Humber