How a spell at Butlins helps pick the jobless up off the deck
IT IS NOT UNKNOWN for some of the unemployed young people helped by North London
TEC to train for work to find themselves heading for Southcoast World, the Butlins holiday centre at Bognor Regis in West Sussex.
No holiday is involved. The Bognor centre is one of the Training for Work providers contracted by the North London TEC, among others, to help improve the work-related skills and qualifications of the longer-term unemployed to make it easier for them to find jobs.
It was the first in the leisure industry to gain the Investors in People standard, and has delivered NVQs since their inception to its own staff and to the long-term unemployed working there under TEC contracts. It also runs its own training centre, which is called the Star's Academy.
The centre - together with other Butlins ' establishments - provide work-based training in catering and hospitality, housekeeping, kitchen portering, sports and recreation, retailing, horticulture and security.
In the year to last October the Bognor centre delivered 580 NVQs - most at levels 1 and 2 - and now has a team of about 20 qualified trainers.
Peter Keach, personnel and training executive at Southcoast World, enthuses about its training role, particularly in helping the longer-term unemployed.
"Some of them have never received any recognition, and they come in here very despondent, believing they're on the deck. But we manage to get them over the bump and back into work mode.
"I believe that lots of larger employers should look seriously at this type of system."
Young people, mainly in their early- and mid-20s, are given a contract and paid for the work they do alongside other employees, with a guarantee of a further contract if they are successful in their NVQs.
Southcoast World is one of 17 training providers under contract to North London TEC.
They include firms with established and well-recognised trainingprogrammes, specialist training companies, and further education and higher education colleges that provide adult training across a broad range of vocational activities, including business administration, computer programming and taxi driving.
North London TEC spends in the region of £6 million of its £22 million annual turnover on adult training under the Training for Work programme. Training providers are selected by competitive tender every two years.
Mike Nixon, chief executive, emphasises that providers are monitored by the TEC to ensure that they deliver according to contract and at the right cost; recently their numbers have been pruned to weed out those who are poor performers.
