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MOST OF THE BARRIERS
to employment that people feel they
encounter are self-imposed beliefs – the endless negative attitudes of, ‘People
like me never get a break,’ ‘There are no jobs anyway,’ or ‘I have a right to
benefits’. These attitudes often become the excuse for inaction, leaving the
individual further and further isolated and distanced from their real aspirations.
Skills-Tu Employment is an educational course aimed at skilling people who
are distant from the labour market by exploring all of these commonly held
beliefs and encouraging learners to adopt a more positive outlook.
We initially developed the course after we were approached by Working
Links Wales in 2012 – they realised that their clients who had been through
the Intuitive Recovery abstinence programme were doing well employability-
wise, and had a much more positive outlook than some other clients.
The programme is aimed specifically at ETE (education, training,
employment) and getting people into work. It is an accredited classroom-based
course that is delivered by peers who have themselves overcome considerable
challenges in their lives and gone on to forge meaningful careers.
Many of our learners have considerable challenges to gaining employment
and volunteering opportunities. The programme aims to change their outlook,
so that they see these challenges as opportunities to demonstrate problem-
solving skills, which will impress potential employers.
Learners are encouraged to take control by accepting responsibility. The
course introduces a rational, problem-solving process to learners, while
challenging the negative self-imposed barriers often present in the mindsets of
people who have experienced problems and disappointments in their lives.
Once learners start to look closely at their belief systems, they begin to
recognise that they support inactivity over action, unemployment over
employment, and continued dependence on the state over personal
independence and responsibility. These individuals have amazing skills, often
learned while dealing
with very considerable life
problems, and yet they rarely
see those skills as valuable
assets.
Writing endless CVs and
filling out application forms can
be a discouraging exercise for
many learners. When presented
on a CV, a history of offending
will always make an employer less likely to hire an individual, which in turn
reinforces a negative mindset.
We focus our learners on using their natural assets in a positive,
constructive way. There are very few employers who would not be impressed by
an individual who has turned their life around – it’s all about how to
communicate this in the right way.
It’s also important to recognise that the vast majority of jobs are not advertised
and therefore require a different route to approaching the employer. A big part of it
is getting good intelligence of who is the real decision maker and then making a
plan of action on how best to approach this individual and be remembered. The
Skills-Tu course teaches learners to look at all of the channels of communication
when job hunting, and addresses everything from body language to personal
hygiene – anything that could pose a barrier to getting the job.
Since launching the course in August 2012, we now deliver the programme
across Wales, the South East, London and our traditional home ground in the
North West. We have also developed our relationships with the Work
Programme providers and have a customer list that includes Working Links,
G4S, A4e and Rehab Job Fit.
Our background in, and promotion of, abstinence, delivered by peers, means
that we have also been able to identify new presentations and support them
into treatment services. What we have found as we have developed the course
within the Work Programme and at Job Centres is that we are able to open up
drug and alcohol treatment to learners.
As a peer-led organisation, recruitment for programme tutors is done through
the graduate base. That means that the programme is delivered by people who
have been through the process themselves, and this makes all the difference –
they have ‘been there, done that’, and create a positive model for learners at
the beginning of the process. All tutors are paid, so they are living, breathing
examples of the process working and of what can be achieved.
Peter Bentley is founder and managing director of Intuitive Recovery.
With many service users struggling to
find meaningful paid or unpaid
employment, Peter Bentley tells DDN
about a new educational course that
encourages individuals to make the
most of the skills they already possess
Break free
December 2014 |
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| 9
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