August 2008

Congratulations to Jamshid, one of our Vital Apprenticeships clients who has recently been employed as a Housing Officer with Residential Management Group Ltd, where he will be undertaking an Advanced Apprenticeship in Customer Services.

We are also delighted that Jade, another Vital Apprenticeships client, has gained a position as an Office Assistant at CityWest Direct, CityWest Homes where she will be undertaking an Apprenticeship in Business Administration.

March 2008

The delivery of the Westminster Apprenticeship Programme transferred from CityWest Homes to Vital Regeneration in September 2006.

Since then we have engaged over 70 young people, placing 14 into apprenticeships, 23 into employment, 21 into training courses and 11 into volunteering and work placements.  70% of these young people were previously not in employment, education or training (NEET) when they first approached us.
Placements have included Genesis Housing Group, CityWest Homes, Kantar Operations, Claire's Mechanical Services, Oxfam.  Jobwise Training and TBG Learning have supported the training delivery of the apprentice programmes.

We recently held focus groups for young people involved in the Vital Apprenticeships programme.  The feedback was really positive and young people recognised the service as beneficial to their future careers, one young person said,
'It will look great on my CV and open up doors.'

The speed of process was also commented upon with one young person looking for placements for 3 months, within a week of seeing the Apprenticeship team the young person was put forward for a variety of opportunities.

Michael Chandler, Learning and Employment Advice Manager said,
'This is important in terms of keeping young people engaged and positive, that there are opportunities are out there.'