Hertfordshire Training &
Development Consortium
Welcome to:
EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS – MAKING IT WORK
Wednesday 17th July 2013
Aims of Today
• To share the experience/outcomes of recent
employability skills improvement programmes
• To demonstrate the benefits of partnership
working and promote networking
• To provide ideas for further improvement
programmes for providers
LSIS – East of England Programmes
Mark Barnsley
Regional Development Manager
Employability Skills Improvement
Programmes
Sarah Elliott
Development Worker
Hertfordshire Training & Development Consortium
Agenda
• HTDC – Introduction
• HESPIP
– Hertfordshire Employability Skills Provider Improvement Programme
• Empower
– Regional programme with Learn EAST
• Workshops for Children’s Centre Managers
• Sustaining voluntary sector provision
HTDC - Introduction
• Conceived Autumn 2007; Launched Autumn 2008
• Over 300 Full and Associate Member Organisations
• 2 principal aims:
– To bring together VCS Training Providers
– To promote and facilitate VCS Workforce Development
• Lead body - Hertfordshire Community Foundation
HESPIP
• Funded by LSIS
• Led by HAFLS
– Hertfordshire Adult and Family Learning Service
• Worked with 6 providers in Hertfordshire:
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ASCEND
Dacorum Communities for Learning (DCFL)
Groundwork Hertfordshire
Herts Mind Network
Herts Trade Union Learning Centre
Safer Places
HESPIP – Programme Outline
Self
Assessment
Provider Questionnaires
Lesson
Observations
1. Differentiation
Workshops
2. Best Practice Sharing
3. Partnerships
Action
Planning
Regional
Dissemination
Best Practice Sharing
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Based on end to end process from learner perspective
Developed a blank template in Excel
Master sheet and tabs for each provider
Participants’ laptops connected with facilitator’s
File shared across the “mini network”
Initial discussion of each section followed by completion by
participants
• Able to save, view and further discuss each response
• Overall analysis available to share more widely
• Enjoyed by participants:
– “The technology used allowed for everyone to participate and share ideas”
Building Partnerships
• Jobcentre Plus
• Other Funded Training and Advice e.g.
– SFA Support for the Unemployed ; www.tchc.net
– National Careers Service ;
– Self Employment/Business start-up – New Enterprise Allowance
• Wenta (Herts and Beds)
• Ixion (East Anglia and Essex); iain.lockhart@ixionholdings.com
• Job and Enterprise Clubs
• Work Experience
• Volunteering – local Volunteer Centres
– www.do-it.org.uk
• Links with Employers
Empower Programme
• Funded by LSIS
• Led by the Learning Partnership Bedfordshire and Luton
• Programme of Capacity-Building workshops
• Delivered via Learn EAST
• HTDC delivered Building Partnerships session
Employability “Checkerboard”
Pre-/
Planning
Gaps to fill
With partners or
external providers
On our own
Understand
Local Need
Recruit
Learners
Core Delivery
Skills
Training
Personal
Skills
Job
Search
Follow-on
activities
Business
Start-up
Volunteering
Work
Experience
IAG
Monitoring
Job
Club
Tracking/
Progression
In Work
Support
Employability Programmes –
The Process
• End to end
• Client not provision focussed
• Sequence and timing may vary by client group/provider
• Recognises that it’s fine not to do everything yourself
Key Steps in Process
Understand Local Need
Local Community (unemployment %, skills, existing
provision); Employers (vacancies, skills needs)
Recruit Learners
Marketing, Referrals
Skills Training
e.g. IT, Vocational skills
Personal Skills
e.g. Confidence-building, Communications, Teamworking
Job Search
e.g. using the internet, online tools, cvs/ application
forms, interview skills
Business start-up
Inc self employment, business planning
Volunteering/Work Experience
Linking with the right employers/roles
Information Advice and Guidance (IAG)
National Careers Service
Job (or Work) Clubs
Maintaining activity, motivation, contact
Tracking/Progression
Keeping in touch, Project evaluation, payment by results
(PBR)
In work support
Sustaining work, PBR
How do you approach each step?
• On your own – your facilities, staff/tutors
• In partnership – working collaboratively with other
organisations
• Use external providers – bring them into your premises
or refer clients out
• Or is there currently a gap? – you haven’t yet identified
how to tackle
Workshops for Children’s Centre
Managers
“Working Together Better – To Help
Parents into Employment”
HTDC and HCC Childhood
Support Services
• Commissioning small projects designed to reduce Child
Poverty in Hertfordshire
• HTDC involved in a range of initiatives around
developing Employability Skills provision
• Welfare Reform changes mean more lone parents need
to seek employment
– Unable to claim income support once child is 5
• Identified the potential to develop the capacity of
Children’s Centres to support parents into work
The Workshops:
WORKING TOGETHER BETTER
to help parents into employment
• Choice of 2 dates and venues in Watford and Stevenage
• For Children’s Centre Managers, Family Support Workers, Providers of
Careers Advice, Employability Skills and Housing
• The workshops aim to help Children’s Centres to:
– Improve understanding of current Welfare to Work programmes
– Identify the role of Children’s Centres
– Develop links with providers of employability skills and housing
– Establish best practice in engaging/supporting unemployed parents
Key messages
• Children’s Centres are well placed, but you can’t do it on
your own
• Partnerships are key to developing provision:
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Bring in expertise
Utilise existing funded programmes
Partner with each other in local areas
Communicate to share best practice/learning
• Via findings from table discussions - developed Top Tips
for Engaging with Parents
Sustaining Voluntary Sector Provision
• Sources of funding – a continuing challenge
– ESF Community Grants
– Adult & Community Learning
– Other/various
• Future ESF Programmes 2014-2020
– Need to engage with your Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP)
• DWP Work Programme
– A missed opportunity to help the long term unemployed
– Limited VCS participation
Key areas for development
• Accreditation of training
• Links with employers
• Tracking outcomes
• In work support
Sarah Elliott
Development Worker
Hertfordshire Training & Development Consortium
01707 251351
sarah.elliott@hertscf.org.uk
www.htdc.org.uk
HTDC is a project led by Hertfordshire Community Foundation,
registered charity number 299438.