Well, this week I have been hobnobbing with Lords, Ladies and Mayors! On Wednesday I spent the day with Mr Quinn at Pendleton College where we attended the official launch of the Greater Manchester Careers Hub. Greater Manchester was recently selected to be one of 20 Careers Hubs across the UK. The purpose of the Careers Hub is to create a network of Careers Leaders that will work together to ensure that careers guidance and education is outstanding across our schools and colleges.

I was delighted to be invited to be one of only 3 Careers Leaders within Greater Manchester and the support, funding and guidance that comes with this accolade will have a lasting effect on our young people. For our Group, this means that we receive £32,000 this year to provide activities relating to employer encounters and engagement. So, over the coming year, we will be planning a number of activities including careers talks by employers, visits to companies within the area and lots of workshops and activity days. It is a really exciting time and will further enhance our already outstanding offer around work placements, internships and careers guidance.

The launch on Wednesday was attended by GM Mayor Andy Burnam, who also had lunch with Mr Quinn! Mr Burnam explained that he would like to introduce a free bus pass to all young people between the ages of 16 and 18 who live in Greater Manchester to encourage them to apply for jobs without the restrictions of travel costs. A brilliant scheme that we wholeheartedly support.

On Thursday I was in London for the Future Talent National Conference at The Royal Geographic Society. This really was an inspirational day that gave me lots of ideas and food for thought.

The day was once again around how we enable our students to be adequately prepared for the world of work and I particularly enjoyed a key note presentation by England World Cup winning rugby coach Sir Clive Woodward and reporter Alastair Campbell..

Clive was asked how he ensured that he got the best out of his team and how he achieved outstanding leadership. He came up with three principles:

• Relentless Learning – ‘Be a sponge not a rock’
• Teamwork – have great people around you that have drive, ambition and challenge
• Bring others in – in his 8 years as England rugby coach, he invited over 50 professionals in from other industries to look at his team and his coaching and to give their feedback!

On reflection, I think we do all of these things so well at New Bridge. We share our good work and take ideas from others. We bring others in to advise and guide us, we are constantly learning and improving and we have THE BEST TEAM of staff! Who knows, there may be an England rugby coach amongst us…although it certainly isn’t me!

Now over to some of those staff with an update from our job coach, Anne Marie..

Well, what an amazing week we’ve had here at Medtia…settling in, some more new placements, new technology and so much more!! Monday as always is our classroom day, working on our Maths and English Functional Skills,  as Mr Holland explains..

“In English, we have been looking at descriptive writing and producing work that shows how we are able to describe events in our lives, good or bad. This week in our Maths session we have looked at times tables and multiplication and the importance of Maths whilst on work placements, whilst next week we will be looking at pay slips, what they mean, how we use them and how the wages are worked out, ready for when we are in paid employment.”

Employability this week has been focusing on our professionalism whilst we are at work, how we behave and how we may handle various situations. We also completed our first unit on developing our interpersonal skills, identifying our strengths and weaknesses, time management, confidence and behaviours in the workplace. Another exciting aspect to our week was the installation of our new interactive screen!

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday continue to be our placement days. One of our many roles as Job Coaches is to continue to build our working relationships with our employers. Here is some feedback that we have received this week:

• John (Manager) at The Whitegate Inn – “Everything is going great, the students are using their initiative and we are going to continue to build on the tasks that the students are being given to support them in to future employment opportunities.”
• Premier Inn – The students have started on their new targets this week of buddying up with a member of the Housekeeping Team to start on room cleans – keep up the good work guys!
• Carol (Manager) at The Childcare Village – “Afsana is doing great! She has settled back in well to the team. She gets on well with the staff and the children. She is always on time and gets on well with the tasks she has been given. She has started to complete child observations and we are looking to give her more responsibilities…..”
  We will let Afsana tell you more herself..

A day in the life of Afsana, Nursery Assistant
East Crompton St James Child Care Village, Shaw

I arrive at East Crompton St James Child Care Village after travelling independently and greet everyone with a ‘Good morning!’

I speak to the staff to find out what jobs I am to do that shift. This morning we have been doing painting, using the animals to help make different patterns..

After all the excitement of the morning, we are now having circle time, getting ready for dinner..

After a busy morning playing with the children, painting and playing games, singing and dancing I have tidied up the Book Corner, ready to read a story after dinner..

It’s dinner time now. I am helping to sort the dinners out for the children – they all bring packed lunches and we serve them their dinners..

My manager says, “Afsana is doing a great job, she works well with the children and brings in ideas/work for the children to do. She has also started to complete observations on the children. She is doing really well.”

Well, it’s been a busy but exciting day here! I’m off for my break where I will sit with Anne-Marie, my job coach, and the nursery manager to go through my diary for the week and set my weekly targets.

I am really enjoying my time here at East Crompton St James Child Care Village. The staff are lovely and I enjoy working with the children. See you all back at Medtia!!

As I have mentioned previously, one of our Future Finders, Sufyaan, was successful in gaining paid employment at JD Warehouse, Rochdale. He attended his induction last Saturday (which he loved!) and he is now waiting for confirmation of his official start date that he will receive soon. Again, well done Sufyaan!!

Finally, Kyra attended a meeting with Mahdlo early last week and has started her placement this week. She has completed her induction day, going through the policies and procedures that they have in place and getting a rota of the tasks that she will need to complete. Kyra has been working in the office helping to prepare the resources that staff need for their sessions. Good luck Kyra, we are looking forward to hearing how your placement goes.

Have a fantastic weekend,

Daniel
Director of Employment & Co Head of Site at Medtia Square

You can view our previous blog entries here

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