Education and training

St Paul’s Centre

Awards

Helping the unemployed into work

According to the regeneration team at the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, “the single factor most likely to cause poverty is unemployment…  unemployed households are most likely to suffer other forms of exclusion and pass poverty and exclusion on to their children”. It concludes that “the key priority must be to equip local people for available jobs, and provide effective routes into training and employment”.

Indeed, the St Paul’s Centre’s own research had shown that one in four children in Hammersmith & Fulham live in homes where the head of the household has never worked, the levels of permanent exclusion from school in the borough are among the highest in the country, and up to 80 per cent of local crime is attributed to people under the age of 26.

In response, it launched the Spear programme to help the unemployed into work by addressing the most common causes of underachievement, such as the absence of motivation, life skills, qualifications and opportunity. The programme includes interactive, classroom based group coaching, mentoring by trained volunteers, work experience placements in reputable companies and the opportunity to achieve a well recognised qualification.

“Of the young people we’re working with,” explains Jo Rice, executive director of Spear, “most don’t have any qualifications and have dropped out of the education system, and are in a spiral of underachievement. We put them on an upward spiral and give them their confidence back and a sense of direction.”

Since its launch in February 2004, more than 200 young people have completed at least one module of the Spear course, which now caters for 90 a year. During that period, an initially disappointing drop out rate of 50 per cent has been reduced to 22 per cent, while a survey of graduates from the scheme showed that more than 75 per cent are in work or education a year later.

“I am a really different person since doing Spear, you wouldn't recognise me,” says Claire, who has been working in a nursery for three years since completing the Spear programme. “I'm loving my job. I've got so much more confidence than I ever had before, and can't wait to set up my own business.”

Jo Rice
Executive director
Spear
The St Paul’s Centre
Queen Caroline Street
London
W6 9PJ
020 8748 5824
www.spearcourse.org
Reg no. 172934

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