Routes into Training and Employment

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Routes into Training and Employment
2
Introduction

• Promoting the employability of parents is one of
  the four core Sure Start service targets for the
  period 2003-04 to 2005-06
• It represents the contribution of Sure Start
  Local Programmes to the general strengthening of
  communities

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Research Questions

• Which courses did parents attend?
• Why did parents attend courses?
• What difference did attending a Sure Start course
  make to parents?
• Which factors promoted access to courses?

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Evidence Base

• Data from 3 programmes
• Survey
• 96 questionnaires returned
• Interviews with parents
• 25
• Interviews with service providers
• Job Centre Plus
• College of Further Education
• Local employer

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Survey Pattern of Response
Gender
Age


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Mapping Courses to Sure Start Targets

• 49 courses across 3 programmes
• Improving social and emotional development
• Parents Matter
• Personal Development
• Indian Head Massage
• Time Out
• Committee Skills
• Young Parenting

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Improving Health

• Chill out and Change
• Healthy Eating
• Food Hygiene
• Baby and Child Lifesaver
• Drugs Awareness
• Outdoor Health and Safety
• Community Health
• St. Johns Ambulance First Aid Early Years
• Anatomy and Physiology Level 3

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Improving Ability to Learn

• Christmas Crafts
• Top Tots
• Story Sacs
• Jollyphonics workshop
• Introduction to Childcare (Fathers/male carers)
• National Tests Maths and English
• NVQ 3 Childcare and Early Education

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Strengthening Families and Communities

• Digital Photography
• Plumbing
• Counselling
• OCN Family History
• Aromatherapy levels 1 and 3
• Computer course level 1
• Childcare level 1
• NVQ 3 Childcare and Early Years Education

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Reasons for Course Attendance
I thought going on the first aid course would
help me as a parent, you know if anything
happened to my child, an accident

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Perceived Benefits
I am a lot more confident around people and my
child is a lot more happy meeting other people

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Hopes and Benefits

• Most parents attended courses to gain a
  qualification and benefit themselves as parents
  
• Only 25 of parents took up courses with the
  stated aim of helping them into employment
  (consistent with NESS findings)
• However, on completing the course most valued
  gaining confidence and learning new skills more
  highly than gaining a qualification

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Promoting Access to Courses What Works

• Localised
• Staged
• Responsive
• Flexible

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Promoting Access to Courses What Works

• Course development user led
• Information sharing diverse local strategy
• Progression routes
• Taster Glass Painting Computing Reflexology
• Leisure Salsa Christmas Craft
• Semi-formal Jolly Phonics Committee Skills
  Personal Development Healthy Eating
• Formal Food Hygiene Child Care, NVQ Levels 1,
  2 and 3, Aromatherapy, levels 1, 2 and 3
  Computer (CLAIT level 1)

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Promoting AccessWhat Works

• Provision of free child care
• 54 of all respondents had used child care
  facilities

Sure Start offer crèche facilities its a big
incentive The child care is wonderful - if there
was no child care , I wouldnt be able to do a
course
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Promoting AccessWhat Works

• Course timing
• Male carers evening and weekend
• Female carers school hours
• Transport
• In-course support
• Learning Mentors

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Volunteering
Helping out with Sure Start has given me
confidence, I've gone on to do interviews and
given speeches, I'd never have done that before

• Volunteering was seen as an opportunity to build
  confidence and gain work experience across
  programmes
• Parent representatives and mentors (supported by
  training) 70 parents across 6 programmes
• Peer support breast feeding
• Planning and delivering activities

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Value of Volunteering
A strong culture of volunteering brings with it
confident individuals, empowered communities
which are safe and friendly places to live,
better services, local and national government
which is more responsive and a more vibrant
economy David Blunkett, 2001
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Partnership Working
I'll attend courses like childcare, just to meet
the parents in the coffee break. I can chat to
them over coffee, so it's informal. Job Centre
Plus

• Job Centre Plus
• Local delivery (attend Young Parents group, CAB
  Drop in sessions)
• Sign posting parents on to Sure Start courses
• Action Teams for Jobs
• Local colleges of Further Education

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Local Employer Perspectives

• A large local employer identified a clear link
  between using Sure Start and/or attending its
  courses and employability

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Local Employer Perspective

• If a parent has used Sure Start and their
  activities or courses or has become a parent
  volunteer, this tells me, the employer, that this
  person has shown initiative. They have made a
  decision to go through the door. If they are
  doing courses, it doesnt really matter which
  ones, they have the basic skills we require.
  These are all skills we would look for to deliver
  effective customer service, so we would be very
  interested in that person.

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Key Findings

• Relatively high numbers of parents engaged in
  training courses, compared to programmes studied
  by NESS (2004)
• High level of father involvement in one programme
  and young parents in another
• Only 25 of parents took up courses with the
  stated aim of helping them into employment
  (consistent with NESS findings)
• Growth in confidence was the greatest perceived
  benefit from course attendance

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Recommendations

• Develop informal monitoring systems which track
  parent progress and outcomes
• Ensure clear progression routes from
  taster/introductory courses to advanced level 3
  NVQ courses
• Explore the introduction of Individual learning
  plans to assist parents in planning their own
  learning goals and possible learning routes