|
The Evolve Development Partnership aims to help people
living in Kent's seven most deprived districts to become more
employable by working with partners to provide vocational training,
mentoring, advice and guidance.
EVOLVE stands for Equal Vocational Opportunities - Learning,
Advice and Employment - and is funded by European money.
Our local partners
We work with local partners to help people recognise that value
of lifelong learning plays in improving their lives.
Kent Adult Education Service (KAES)
Lone parents can enrol on a 'caring for children' programme that
will equip them with the skills they need to get a job in that
professional area.
The programme includes careers advice, helping to rasing
self-esteem and improving foundational skills in literacy. An
additional element to the programme includes 'Lone stars'. 'Lone
stars' will support the indiviudals on their journery to lifelong
learning and provide champions within the community to promote
opportunities available for learning.
Contact Jill McDougal on 07917 519463 or email
jill.mcdougal@kent.gov.uk,
Georgina Brown on 07774 554189 or email
georgina.brown@kent.gov.uk.
Read the
case studies from lone parents on the Getting On course.
Kent Adult Social Services
Kent Adult Social Services is delivering a training programme to
people from local Black and minority ethnic communities who want to
work in adult care. The course provides certificated one day
qualifications in first aid, manual handling, food and hygiene and
health and safety. These are the entry requirements for employment
within the field of care services.
These courses are being delivered evening and weekends which
allows those who are employed in other professions to attend.
Indiviudals completing their course have also been interviewed for
vacancies with Kent Adult Social Services and have been offered
employment.
Contact Sukhi Bains on 01474 544462 or email
sukhi.bains@kent.gov.uk.
Read
case studies about the Equal Care scheme.
Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust
EVOLVE has given Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership
Trust the opportunity to introduce a new vocational rehabilitation
service model. This model is known as Individual Placement and
Support (IPS). The trust has also created a new role, Vocational
Advisor. The Vocational Advisor endorses the IPS model, which
respects the individual service users' vocational aspirations.
We know the majority of people with mental health problems
aspire to work but may experience various hurdles in their journey
towards work. The Vocational Advisor works closely with the
individual client in mapping out what they hope to achieve in work
and what steps they need to take to fulfil this. For some people
this is a straightforward process, for others it may require the
individual gaining various qualifications/training/work experience,
before securing a job.
The service is open to anyone within the Care Programme Approach
(CPA). The Vocational Advisor is fully integrated into the
Community Mental Health Team and works alongside the Care
Co-ordinator, specifically looking at the vocational aspect of the
Care Plan.
The Vocational Advisor can help the individual in sourcing their
vocational pathway in terms of finding suitable education and
training opportunities and/or voluntary work in order to gain work
experience. They also can assist in job searching and can liaise
with employers (with the client's consent) when support is
necessary, or in making recommendations regarding reasonable
adjustments. The Vocational Advisor will also network with a range
of other vocational providers and Jobcentre Plus when
appropriate.
Contact Heather Penn on 01622 725000 or email
heather.penn@icc.wkentmht.nhs.uk.
Read
case studies about the one-to-one support initiative.
The Prince's Trust
The Trust is providing innovative ways to support indiviudals on
Prince's Trust programmes with mentors who require additional
one-to-one help in completing the programme. The support has
included providing first aid courses and life skills. Individuals
have also formed an advisory group to work with The Prince's Trust
to gather information from young people in what they can provide
for this client group. An introduction to the media industry and
employment within this industry has been a focus of this group.
Contact Ron Dunham on 01622 694323 or email
rob.dunham@kent.gov.uk
or Patrick Jubb on 07939 932046 or email
patrick.jubb@princes-trust.org.uk.
Read the
case study about the Prince's Trust scheme.
MCCH
MCCH is new to the partnership and will be working with
Maplesden Noakes School to support inclusion for pupils with
physical and learning disabiliites. People on the programme will
support school pupils studying for their GCSEs in health and social
care. They will also become support volunteers on courses that
adults are attending at the school. These will include art,
cookery, woodwork and IT courses. MCCH will also add a
'self-employment' aspect to this programme as the school
specialises in business enterprise.
Contact Derek Thomas on 01227 719848 or email
d.thomas@mcch.co.uk or
Sarah Priest on 01622 675123 or email
s.priest@mcch.org.uk.
Visit the MCCH website (this link will open in a new
window).
Our transnational partners
Our transnational partners will help us to learn about the
underlying barriers to employment in the Netherlands, Finland and
Austria.
We are aiming to close the gap within existing labour market
initiatives and learn more from each other about methodology,
processes, approaches and delivery tools and practices.
We are all aiming to help individuals reach a level of personal
stability and possibly gain recognised qualifications or
employment.
Finland
The Link University of Helsinki, Palmenia Centre for Research
and Continuing Education, Saimaankatu, 11 FIN - 15140 Lathi
Contact: Kirsi Kuusinen-James (email
Kirsi
Kuusinen-James)
Austria
OSB
Consulting GmbH (OESEB Consulting GmbH), Breitenfelder, Strasse
49/3 A-5020, Saltzburg
Contact: Harald Prantl (email
harald.prantl@oesb.at)
or Manuela Hurfnagl (email
manuela.hurfnagl@oesb.at)
Netherlands
WORK:LESS CARE!, Werkprojecten Groep (this link will open in a
new window), Struisvogelstraat 17 a/b, Postbus 4159 9701 ED
Groningen
Contact: Martia Schaaps (email
m.schaaps@werkpro.nl) or
Macheteld Koopmans (email
m.koopmans@werkpro.nl)
Our objectives
To:
- combat discrimination in the workplace and develop innovative
ways to help people get a job
- provide innovative vocational training opportunities for target
groups, test new ways to bridge the gap between education and work
by supporting the successful transition into employment
- pioneer a novel approach to beneficiary support based around
assessment, mentoring and engagement
- develop models and guidelines of best practice for programme
developers, training deliverers and policy makers that can be used
to design and implement interventions for disadvantaged groups in
the labour market not just locally but across Europe
- establish new forms of collaboration between public, private
and voluntary sectors in the fields of employment and
training.
Evolve is part of a community programme called Equal, a
European Social
Fund initiative (this link will open in a new window) which
tests and promotes new means of combating all forms of
discrimination and inequality in the labour market. The GB Equal
Support Unit is managed by ECOTEC. |