Volunteering Into Work

West Middlesbrough Neighbourhood Trust 

you bring

Volunteering into Employment and Work

Through Volunteering into Employment and Work we are offering employers the opportunity to provide volunteering opportunities for unemployed people of Middlesbrough.  This will allow them to gain confidence and learn about the job as well as gaining employability skills.

Through this volunteering we will bring into view career options within your sector and allow potential employees to showcase their skills whilst the work with you as a volunteer.

How the programme works:

When an organisation joins the scheme our Employer Support Officer will talk to them to see what volunteering opportunities you can offer.  These opportunities should be for 50 hours and offer a meaningful experience for the volunteer and provide you with a valuable pair of hand and a potential employee.

There will be no costs involved in hosting a volunteer.

Taskus is working in partnership with Network Solutions to provide project implementation management and support to ensure VIEW gets of to a flying start and meets its delivery targets.

Rickter - Funded Training for Yorkshire & Humber

Sport England, A4e and SPORTING PASSPORT

Taskus is working with A4e and Sport England to develop a tool to work with young people to translate the

ir sporting activity into identifiable employability skills.

When applying for jobs young people often have difficulty in appreciating and expressing the quali-ties and skills they have that employer look for when recruiting.

The CBI believes there are seven employability competencies which would benefit young people and increase their employability:

• Self-management: clocking in/out, keeping timesheets, achieving tasks on time, under-standing accountabilities and expectations, keeping a log of activities
  
  
  
• Teamworking: attending internal meetings and team briefings, contributing to discussions, working closely with a ‘buddy’, sharing basic tasks such as getting teas/coffees
  
  
  
• Business and customer awareness: learning about the organisation’s business strategy and performance, observing or assisting with answering customer queries face-to-face, over the telephone or by email, drafting letters of response
  
  
  
• Problem solving: investigating and responding to customer queries, assisting an IT help-desk, setting up spreadsheets, interpreting diagrams
  
  
  
• Communication and literacy: completing an application form before the placement, draft-ing and proofing documents, drafting letters, faxes and emails, observing and making phone calls, attending presentations and briefings, writing a report on the placement
  
  
  
• Application of numeracy: analysing receipts and calculating expenses, working with spreadsheets, measuring and taking readings, conducting stock-counts and completing stock sheets, checking orders received against delivery notes, weighing goods
  
  
• Application of IT: updating databases, preparing a presentation using PowerPoint, con-ducting internet-based research, preparing a report on the placement itself.
  

CBI also recognises that a positive attitude is the key foundation – this can be summed up as a ‘can-do’ approach, a readiness to take part and contribute, openness to new ideas and a drive to make those ideas happen, this underpins the seven competencies.

Many young people gain these skills through their sporting activities but need a way to translate their activity into concepts and terminology that will help them gain employment.

Sport England and a group of stakeholders wish to consider the viability and subsequent develop-ment of a mechanism of recognising the contribution that involvement in sport can make to a person’s employability skills.

We are considering the potential of a Nationally Accredited process that will be recognised by employers in the recruitment process and by awarding bodies to count towards accreditation of prior learning.

We propose having 3 levels of achievement to demonstrate young peoples level of achievement:

Bronze

Silver

Gold

Many young people gain employability skills through their sporting activities and talents but need a way to translate their activity into concepts and terminology that will help them gain employment.

Sport England and partners are developing a mechanism of recognising the contribution that involvement in sport can make to a person’s employability skills - PasSport, using a national recognised tool, Bright-Sparks.

Life Coaching for the Primary Care Trust

Working with A4e, Taskus is providing Life Coaching for clients who are on Incapacity Benefit to assist them to move towards employment.

We work with clients for one hour a week for six weeks using the tradition TGROW model of Life Coaching but utilise techniques from Neuro Linguistic Programming and Solution Focused Brief Therapy to maximise the time we have with them.

The Rickter Scale is also used at the start and end of the programme to assist with goal setting, provide motivation, and demonstrate distance travelled. (For more details see previous blog on The Rickter Scale).

This is a very effect combination and can significantly change the clients outlook on life.

We can apply this model to innumerable situations from the those furthest from the job market to those in the board room.

The Rickter Scale

The Rickter Scale

The Rickter Scale® provides you with an innovative hands-on assessment and evaluation tool. 

• Easy to administer

• Instantly engages the client

• Helps to overcome communication barriers

• Produces a clear, comprehensive profile of individuals needs which is     immediately available to facilitate action planning

• Motivates the individual to take ownership of their own action plan

• Produces valid and reliable information within a short period of time

• Offers standardisation

• Provides a measure of soft outcomes and 'distance travelled'

• Helps identify appropriate support

• Can be adapted to different client groups/needs

• Provides evidence to demonstrate accountability to stakeholders

The Rickter Scale® allows clients to better understand their present circumstances, to identify priority areas for support or intervention, to recognise strategies that have worked for them previously and to explore future possibilities.  

• Easy to use and understand
  
  
• Avoids communication barriers
  
  
• Allows the client to explore possibility
  
  
• Builds on what works for the individual
  
  
• Is non-threatening and non-judgemental
  
  
• Gives instantaneous feedback about progress made
  
  
• Allows client to see the 'big picture' and make connections
  
• Creates greater self awareness
  
  
• Helps identify appropriate specialist support
  
  
• Builds motivation

This exclusive tool has been created for practitioners by practitioners, with a minimum of recording documentation. 

What it does is measure distance travelled and the soft outcomes that clients achieve such as:

• Improved confidence, focus, direction and self-esteem
  

• Feelings of well being, safety and satisfaction

• Personal skills e.g. time management and problem solving
  

• Practical skills e.g. cooking, healthy eating and budgeting 
  

• Community involvement and a sense of place and purpose
  

For details of upcoming Practitioner Training events email info@taskus.biz