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Derry Youth & Communityworkshop 2023 ANNUAL REPORT

CONTACT DETAILS:

DYCW, 6 Society Street, Derry, BT48 6PJ

Tel: 028 7126 8891 email: training@dycw.co.uk www.dycw.co.uk

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Derry Youth & Community Workshop
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Introduction

our Pre-Employment Care programme, completing a qualification, with 9 of these clients entering into employment.

Derry Youth & Community Workshop is a registered charity, founded in 1978 and continues to deliver on its original mission statement:

To provide training in and facilitate the development of both personal and vocational skills: thereby allowing the person to reach their full potential and to channel their talents towards enhancing their own lives and the life of the community as a whole.
To enhance the employment prospects of the person.

Over the past year, Derry Youth & Community Workshop has delivered its services via programmes contracted through the Department for the Economy, European Social Fund and the Department for Communities. These programmes include Skills for Life and Work, Training for Success, ApprenticeshipNI, LEMIS North West (Job Assist Centre), Learning North West (Engage) and SEEDs programme.

Unfortunately due to the loss of European funding on the 31st March 2023, we sadly have had to make staff redundant who have contributed a great deal to the outstanding success of LEMIS North West (Job Assist Centre), Learning North West (Engage) and SEEDs programmes.

Across all training programmes during 2022/23, DYCW had 494 new clients register for support in developing skills with progressing towards and into employment. 365 have completed a qualification and 240 clients have progressed into employment or Further Education.

The workshop continues to deliver high quality qualifications, with 46 clients gaining an essential skills qualification, 23 clients gaining vocational qualifications, 13 clients gaining a qualification in employability and personal development and 268 clients gaining qualification in areas of Food Safety, First Aid, Health and Safety, Manual Handling, COSHH, Moving and handling of people, Fire safety and Safeguarding training. 15 clients completed

DFE Quality Improvement Team continues to report that there is sufficient evidence Derry Youth and Community Workshop is planning effectively for sustained improvement, following submission of Quality Improvement Plan for Department For the Economy (DFE) Skills for Life and Work, Training for Success and Apprenticeships NI programmes and Quality Monitoring and Evaluation Returns for European Social Fund (ESF) LEMIS North West and Learning North West programmes.

General Service Delivery Reports for Training for Success, Skill for Life and Work and Apprenticeship NI programmes are completed on a quarterly basis and returned to the Department For the Economy (DFE). Quarterly meetings continue to take place via ZOOM calls with DFE Contract Manager following submission of reports.

City and Guilds continue to carry out External Quality Assurance (EQA) visits remotely following the Covid-19 pandemic, with all reports continuing to reflect positively on both the training and policy and procedures that are in place. DYCW have recently applied for a £3000 grant from OCN NI to deliver Award in Personal Success and Well-Being as an additional qualification to our Training for Success and Skill for Life and Work participants. We are awaiting the outcome of this application.

OCR recently completed a Centre Monitoring Inspection Report with feedback noting that it was an excellent report with no actions or recommendations.

Derry Youth & Community Workshop had another outstanding successful year with all European Social Fund programmes exceeding all targets (LEMIS North West, Learning North West and SEEDs). Sadly as mentioned earlier, due to the loss of European funding, these programmes have came to an end, however the success of all programmes has been beyond outstanding and has made such an impact on peoples lives.

Outstanding Successes

DYCW staff, board members and learners (past and present), are delighted that our Chief Executive - Mr Declan Doherty, received the North West Business Hero Award at the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce – North West Business Awards, at a ceremony held recently in the City Hotel.

Declan has earned this recognition for his contribution to supporting thousands of unemployed local young people and adults over many years in their personal development, resulting in them achieving qualifications and progressing into employment or further education.

Declan has a unique management style and this is reflective in the retention of staff within DYCW and their dedication in return to both Declan and the Workshop.

European Social Fund programmes have been an outstanding success with progression pathway plans put in place for all clients to support / community organisations and other training providers.

Retention of our Skills for Your Work learners has been excellent for the quarter January to March 2023 at 100%. Quarter July to September 2022 saw 100% of Skills for Your Life and Training for Success leavers achieving at least 1 qualification and progressing into employment or further education.

Derry Youth and Community Workshop have a commitment to Continued Professional Development for all staff. Staff continue to attend training events / meetings suitable to their individual roles and keep up to date with any department or awarding body requirements. Staff also attend any job fairs held in social security offices, regional colleges and schools.

Following been awarded a tender to complete an Essential Skills Communication and Application of Number programme with Greater Shantallow Area Partnership and St Brigids College, DYCW tutors Rosie Curry and Fiona Milligan successfully delivered this programme with all learners gaining qualifications from Entry Level to Level 2.

Qualification Completions from 01/04/2022

In the past year DYCW clients have achieved a total of 365 certifications over the following areas:

Essential Skills | Vocational Skills | Employability Skills Personal & Social Skills | Short Training Courses

Essential Skills Successful Completers:

Essential Skills - 46 learners completed Essential Skills qualifications. Breakdown of areas completed:

Employability Skills & Personal & Social Skills Successful Completers:

13 learners gained certifications over both Employability Skills & Personal & Social Skills qualifications.

Literacy – Entry Level 1 & 3
Communication Level 1 & 2
Numeracy Entry Level 1 & 3
Application of Number Levels 1 & 2
ICT Level 1 & 2

Short Training Courses:

283 learners gained qualifications in:

Food Safety Level 1 & 2
First Aid Level 1
Health & Safety Level 1

Vocational Skills Successful Completers:

Vocational Sections - 23 learners have completed qualifications. Breakdown of areas completed:

Introduction to Retail Skills Entry Level 3
Retail Knowledge Level 1 & 2
Introduction to Hair and Beauty Sector Level 1
IT User Skills Level 1
Manual Handling Level 1
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH)
Moving and Handling of People
Fire Safety
Pre-employment Care Programme
Safeguarding Children Level 1
Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Level 1
Customer Service Level 1 & 2
Health and Social Care Level 1

REPORT ON WORK PLACEMENTS AND EMPLOYERS 2022/2023

Lisa McHugh Work Placement Officer Derry Youth & Community Workshop

Over the past year (2022-2023), regardless of the lack of government guidance and cuts to funding and staff job losses, Derry Youth & Community Workshop has continued to pride itself as a professional training & support organisation.

All trainees/clients who started with DYCW have been given the opportunity to participate and prove themselves in a valuable work experience which in turn will hopefully lead to employment.

The return and success of the economy in 2022/23 depended on it having a motivated and skilled workforce. A lot of local employers where struggling to find and recruit staff. This was our opportunity to encourage local businesses to engage with different programmes at DYCW and play a part in achieving this goal while helping local people progress and maximise their potential.

Derry Youth offer a supportive, caring and friendly learning environment which allows our trainees/ clients to aspire to be the best version of themselves or who they want to be.

The majority of our trainees/clients were seeking qualifications, work experience/job sampling, confidence building, alongside some mentoring and support as well as social activities and life skills to enable them to feel connected and fit into the world of work again or maybe for the first time.

We continue to build close relationships with many partners and employers from the public, private and voluntary sectors. We have built new connections and quality work placements with local employers such as The Northern Ireland Civil Service who have recruited 14 of our clients this year, Boots Chemist, Derry City Council, Keys McMahon Builders, Heavenly Hub Cafe, Re-Loved Charity Shop, Forsight Charity Shop, Clooney Community Residents Group, City Turkish Barbers and Lincoln Court Youth & Community Group to name but a few.

We like to offer our trainees/clients as broad a range as possible of employers to meet and work with. In order to do this we have attended a number of Careers Fairs, Industry Visits and keep connected with the Chamber of Commerce and attend DEN (Disability Employment Network) meetings. These events are attended by local business people in the area and also other similar service providers who like to receive and share information on best practices.

We have organised informal briefing sessions (where other service providers and employers are invited) which has given us, the trainees/clients, parents and employers the opportunity to meet in a relaxed environment and hear all about what is happening, share experiences and review our processes.

We have continued to establish strong links with secondary schools in our local area this year. We deliver presentations on all our vocational courses, employability skills, Maths, English and ICT.

This in turn we hope will increase our uptake of students enrolling in all of our programmes.

DYCW would like to congratulate the following students who have secured jobs following their training with the Workshop his year:

CALLUM THORNTON ALTNAGELVIN HOSPITAL WENDY BROWNE HEADZ & CO HAIR SALON BRANDON MCCLOSKEY THE CITY HOTEL CIARAN KILLAN E&I ENGINEERING CALLUM KING E&I ENGINEERING SHEA MCGEEHAN CONSTRUCTION - DUBLIN

Also 14 clients from our Lemis, Engage and Seeds programmes who secured work with The Northern Ireland Civil Service positions in (Foyle, Waterside House & Lisahally).

JOSEPH TOLAND, The Recruitment Co. (Belfast) .......................................................................................... Recruitment Consultant

Headz & Co.

HEADZ AND CO

“This is our first year working along side Derry Youth & Community Workshop as a Belfast Recruitment Agency supplying amazing job opportunities to Derry. As we don’t base in Derry this is a great two way benefit link for both us and the clients at DYCW. This year has proved really successful with a great intake for the Northern Ireland Civil Service positions and we are hopeful this will continue”.

GLYNIS JEFFERSON, Proprietor (15 Glendermott Rd, Waterside, L’Derry) ........................................................................

“I have been working with DYCW for many years with their hair students. This year in particular I have trained and employed my apprenticeship trainee who has proved to be one of the most dedicated hairdressers ever. I also have another trainee who is working really hard and is very keen also. Hopefully this will be another great year of success for our salon.”

NAOIMHE LIVINGSTONE, Shop Manager FORSIGHT CHARITY SHOP (Ferryquay St, L’Derry) ..........................................................................................

“Just recently we opened in Derry and made contact with Derry Youth. We have agreed to have people on placement in the shop for customer service, retail and hopefully visual merchandising. We are looking forward to training so that hopefully we can all benefit from a skilled work force and employees who are happy at work”

MILLENNIUM FORUM,

(Newmarket St, L’Derry)

........................................................................ Education & Marketing Officer MAGGS ANDERSON,

“Love the opportunity to be able to offer students from DYCW the facility of work experience. They can come here to work, train and learn many new skills which helps with their studies and also equips them for a job. It is a great feeling of satisfaction for us as a company when helping out a student in all aspects of their life”.

BLUEBOX BROADBAND (16, Skeoge Industrial Estate, Beraghmore Rd, L’Derry. BT48 8SE) ..........................................................................................

AISLING GARDENER, HR Manager

“Great experience being able to offer work placements in IT to students who are studying the subject. To date we have been very successful at training clients and all is working really well. Employment within our company is always seen as the end goal.”

LEMIS North West

LEMIS North West European funding has sadly come to an end on 31st March 2023.

LEMIS North West was an ESF / DFE funded programme designed to engage unemployed and economically inactive clients, and by identifying and addressing barriers to employment, move the clients towards and into employment. While on the programme, clients were supported by a dedicated mentor and guided as they identified their barriers and prepared an action plan to overcome these and progress towards employment.

LEMIS North West, have had many successful models of delivery and engagement, these have included:

1-1 Meetings: Lemis North West clients were supported and encouraged to recognise their own personal skills and experience that they could transfer to the world of work.

Training / Qualifications: Outcomes and standards achieved were outstanding across both our online and accredited training, which includes a range of Employability and Personal Development courses, Essential Skills provision and in-house pre-employment care programme with embedded First Aid and palliative care units that guaranteed the clients an interview with a number of local care providers. These courses have undoubtedly helped our clients achieve success in their job search activities.

Innovation was demonstrated by wanting to implement a more effective process to track the overall development of clients soft skills. An increase in soft skills was always recorded on clients notes but it was felt that an overall assessment would be more beneficial. Exit interviews were carried out by all clients, so it was decided to add additional measurements for soft skills into the exit questionnaire. We ranked the top 5 soft skills as; Confidence, Motivation, Decision Making, Positive Attitude and Communication.

Clients indicated which skills they felt had improved with distance travelled during their time on the project. Results were collated and compiled as a bar chart in bi-monthly reviews. From this we could monitor the positive impact that the programme was having on improving the life chances of clients.

The statistics from the period shows:

LEMIS North West mentors completed exit interviews with all clients and discussed progression plans through North West Regional College and suitable support groups / programmes through our established links with the community and voluntary sector.

FIGURES FROM YEAR 4 (APRIL 2022 –MARCH 2023)	FIGURES FROM YEAR 4 (APRIL 2022 –MARCH 2023)
Total number of registrations	146
Total number into Employment	53
Total number into Education/Training	54

Learning North West - Engage

Learning North West (Engage), European funding has sadly come to an end on 31st March 2023. It was a disability programme designed to support clients with ASD, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Intellectual Disabilities and or Mental Ill Health. It was our aim to mentor and support clients and potential employers/placement providers through the learning process, improving clients employment prospects and establishing and maintaining relationships with local businesses.

The Engage programme was a European Social Funded (ESF) programme that was established in April 2018. During the life of the programme all targets have been achieved. Since 2018 we have had 203 enrolments of which 24 have moved into employment, 92 to DFE- TfS programmes and 14 onto Further Education.

Learning North West (Engage), have had many successful models of delivery and engagement, these have included:

1-1 Meetings: All clients were guided as they identified and overcame their barriers and

progressed towards further training, education and employment.

Group Activities: A huge part of our programme was focused on social inclusion with an emphasis on improving the confidence and self-esteem of individuals within the group. Formal and informal social activities took place on a weekly basis and included; baking/cooking, table quizzes, local walks and museum visits, relaxation classes, craft sessions, millenium forum events, personal care and hygiene training, health and safety at work, online security and anger management training.

Training / Qualifications: Training and qualifications were offered and successfully completed by clients in the areas of Personal and Social Skills, Pre-Literacy training, Essential Skills, Employability Skills and Vocational training in Retail, Hair and Beauty Sector, Health and Social Care and Customer Service.

Work Placement Opportunities: Learning North West (Engage), have had a bank of local employers who have supported our clients through job sampling and allowed them to develop both their Employability and Personal and Social Skills.

Innovation was demonstrated by introducing a measuring tool called My Journey. This tool was devised to measure soft skills specifically by asking relevant questions. We created an electronic questionnaire that we introduced at the initial assessments, we asked questions and individuals to score themselves according to how they felt at that time. This was repeated quarterly and the data used to create a graph so we could see visually if there had been an increase or decrease in the responses. The statistics show an increase of 90+% of improvement in self-esteem, confidence and communication skills during the life of the programme.

Progression pathways for clients were discussed at one to one meetings, which involved completing the final My Journey questionnaire and then information was provided on programmes that were suitable for progression routes and relevant to individuals, these included; Destined, Mencap, Cedar, AMH, DYCW – Skills for Life and Work. An exit plan was completed and all information recorded.

The success of this programme has been beyond outstanding and made such an impact on many peoples lives.

www.dycw.co.uk

2023-03-31-annual-report

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