Vocational Focus

Within the Aspire Supported Living system we place a huge emphasis on enabling our citizens to establish and then work towards realistic employment goals.

It is of course a given fact that both the individual citizens and society in general will benefit from any moves that can be made towards employment. This though can be a very daunting prospect for those citizens that have been unemployed for some considerable length of time.

With the above in mind we have developed strong links with local training providers, the job centre and also various companies willing to assist us with our work experience aims. The overall concept being to, without pressure, encourage our citizens to come along to a wide variety of vocational (and non-vocational) training opportunities at our dedicated Aspire Supported Living training facility.

These courses are intended to provide a gentle introduction back into the learning and work environment, at a pace personally suitable to the citizens in question.

The courses on offer can range dramatically from first aid training, arts and crafts, computer based training, health and safety, fundamental english and maths, to more focused sessions such as pre-employment training. All of course intended to add value to the citizens existing skill base and to boost their personal confidence.

Once the citizens have completed an initial set of training programs and boosted their confidence and interest to a level that they feel comfortable, we can then assist them in obtaining work experience. Here we have worked hard to negotiate work experience opportunities with many of our supplier partners, and these include opportunities in gardening, window cleaning, administration and maintenance.

Of course once our citizens have gained their all important work experience, on top of various training qualifications, we will then be on hand to support them with the next step. Our vocational tutors then step in to assist with CV writing and interview preparation.

The individual speed of progression through this phase of the Aspire Supported Living system is totally dependant on the citizen themselves, although encouragement to progress is given to all citizens equally.