Northern Employment - Let’s Work
SIF provided funding of over £1.2m for a project focused on providing employment and training opportunities for unemployed people to improve their job.
Project Name: | Northern Employment – Let’s Work |
|---|---|
Zone: | Northern |
Category: | Revenue |
Social Investment Fund Outcome: | Pathways to Employment |
Status: | Delivery - Complete |
Funding awarded: | £1,274,424 |
About the Project
This initiative sought to increase employment in areas of socio-economic needs across the SIF Northern zone including Larne, Ballymena, Carrickfergus, Newtownabbey, Antrim, Coleraine, Magherafelt, Cookstown, Moyle and Ballymoney. It aimed to widen access to job opportunities and create meaningful pathways to employment through the provision of valuable employment and training opportunities. The goals of the project included supporting the long term unemployed to enhance their skills, encouraging training accreditation, converting work placements into full time equivalent roles and increasing personal confidence.
85 host businesses and organisations provided work placements from varying sectors including; manufacturing, IT, hospitality, Health & Social Care, gaming design and construction with some of those businesses providing more than one opportunity.
Progress to date
This project has completed delivery. The coronavirus pandemic posed a number of challenges for the host businesses and participants but despite this, 160 participants gained placement opportunities relevant to their chosen career path, with many achieving training, mentoring and accredited qualifications to further their career prospects. 105 people (including 15 direct job offers where the host employers took them straight into an employment contract) gained full permanent employment as a result of the programme success and 75 of those participants have sustained employment for six months. Over 438 qualifications were achieved in areas including customer service, mental health, first aid, social media, copy writing, safeguarding, forklift training, and debt management. The benefits from this project will also have a lasting impact on participant’s families, businesses and the wider community due to the valuable skills and experiences acquired and collaborative working relationships established.
The Social Investment Fund produced a number of short films on Social Investment Fund projects and outcomes. Below is the link to a short film that focuses on the lessons learned by the Northern Employment Let’s Work project:
Impacts
Monitoring and evaluation of all Social Investment Fund projects is carried out using “Outcomes Based Accountability” (OBA). The below infographic details some of the key impacts of the Northern Employment Let’s Work project.
