Since 2011 when “apprentice supermarket” was formed we have helped over 221 young adults gain enterprise & employability skills allowing them to enter into the world of work. Some of these young people have left school with little or no education or even help to access work. Our demographic of people we have helped have had drink, drug, mental health issues, homeless and ex offenders. Yet all of them want the help to be able to make a contribution back into their community. We have also placed over 150 others into apprenticeships.
The gap between un-employability & employability is massive for both the candidate and the SME employer who would really like to help and support an apprentice. But sadly too many training providers and colleges once on the government’s gravy train have forgotten about that individual needs.
This unfortunately does not help the local issues and the trust becomes lost with the individual and the local company wanting to help take on someone to expand their business. We ensure that all candidates go through our pre employability enterprise & employability programme to understand their roles and responsibilities in the work place. This then leads them into the volunteering to gain valuable work experience and ultimately in to the world of work. They have all contributed at least 30 hours volunteering and some still are and most have progressed.
I have enclosed our SROI document showing the contribution saving and the volunteering return to the state since we started and that figure is £733,708.00. I am also delighted to say that the results of our continuing SROI shows we deliver a Social Return on Investment (SROI) of £3.54 for every £1 of investment or funding. We continued to develop our SFEDI Centre securing direct claims status in 2014 and being nominated in the SFEDI & IOEE Celebrating Enterprise 2015 Awards.
