Northern Trust Celebrate Success of Employability Scheme

The Northern Health and Social Care Trust in partnership with Action for Children and Include Youth (Give & Take) held a celebration event on 3 October at The Braid Ballymena to acknowledge the success of the Employability Scheme.

The scheme creates a unique opportunity for young people to gain experience in the job market through work tasters and work placement. Such opportunities allow young people to gain employability skills and to develop their self-confidence so that they can relate their Further Education theory to practice or become more employable.

To date the Scheme has been able to offer experiences in retail, sport, childcare, car mechanic’s, music production, drama production, clerical work, IT, software design, web design, MLA constituency offices and Stormont. Employers have included Northern Health and Social Care Trust, Coleraine Borough Council, TK MAXX, Ballymena Borough Council and Tesco. The scheme has also helped young people to return to full / part time study or into paid employment.

Marie Roulston, Director of Children’s Services Northern Trust, commented: “The celebration event was a fantastic opportunity to acknowledge both the input from employers and the successes of a number of young people who have participated in the scheme. I would like to congratulate all those involved in organising the event and those who helped make the scheme a success.”

One particular young person who benefited from the scheme is Tristan Fox.

Tristan is 18 and is currently completing a Spire to Work course with the Northern Regional College. Tristan has been on placement since July 2013 within the Northern Trust, working as a catering assistant two days a week.

The placement has provided an opportunity to gain experience in catering, and has helped to increase his confidence.

Tristan said: “My work placement is very enjoyable everyone is really helpful and friendly. The work has helped me to learn new skills in the kitchen environment and build my confidence to enable me to finish my course. In the future I would like to work in the catering industry either in a busy kitchen or hotel.”

Northern Area Employability Service Project Co-ordinator, Nadia Ghalami, said: “Since 2011 we have supported around 170 young people aged 16 and over to access the skills and experience they need to start training, enter into education and find work.”

“The aim of the evening was to celebrate the achievements of the young people we’ve worked with, thank the employers who gave these young people a chance and also to show others what can be achieved with the appropriate support.

“We are always searching for employers from all trades and professions across the Northern Trust area to contact us if they think they could provide our young people with work experience. There’s no cost to the employer and we’ll work with them to ensure the service benefits both their organisation and the young person on placement. If you think you can help, we’d love to hear from you!”

To find out more information about the Northern Area Employability Service and the benefits of offering work experience to young people, please contact Nadia on 07841 255 473 or email nadia.ghalami@actionforchildren.org.uk

25th October 2013