Skills4Action
How Skills4Action works
Recruiting new participants
The Skills4Action project team recruits people with learning disabilities and mental health needs aged 16 plus from local mainstream, special schools and colleges.
Individual learning plans
We carry out an initial assessment to identify each person's ambitions, specific needs, interests and aspirations. We translate these into an individual learning plan. This reflects how the person would like to learn, what they would like to achieve, and what vocational and non-vocational skills they wish to develop.
Skills4Action induction training days
We have designed the induction training to be accessible for people with varying levels of learning disabilities or mental health needs. This training is delivered locally by the United Response staff team, who have extensive experience in providing accessible, specialised training. Each person who takes part receives a certificate for attending.
Core elements of the training include Health and Safety, Customer Care and Stress Awareness, Emergency Aid and Personal Effectiveness. Work Skills Experience Learning continues with 10 weeks’ work skills experience.
This gives people the opportunity to put formal training into practice while learning practical new skills. Training takes place in a small, supported group and focuses on
- Learning New Vocational Skills
- Developing New Relationships
- Learning To Work As Part Of A Team
- and How to Work Safely.
Volunteer support
We recruit volunteers locally, managed by the Skills4Action team, and train them to offer one-to-one support to the people taking part in the project. This provides the members of the project with extra support from local people. Volunteers themselves can get valuable work experience and references.
Managing the project
A local multi-agency steering group manages the project, to make sure there are good communications and referral systems between all the agencies, and that Skills4Action complements and enhances other activities in the area.
Monitoring and evaluation
In addition to the monitoring individual learning plans, the Skills4Action team puts a detailed monitoring programme in place to evaluate outcomes and to feed back to the steering group.
Longer term
The Skills4Action team aims to establish links with local supported employment agencies to provide opportunities for paid employment, further training and development or volunteering.