The Steps to Success retail skills and employment project

As well as supporting individual participants to gain new skills and to access employment opportunities, Steps to Success aimed to develop and pilot innovative guidance approaches for:

• community based personal adviser support
• participant engagement
• accessibility
• employer engagement
• and partnership working

The project was designed to develop the skills of individuals whilst at the same time including measures to make participation easier. The project comprised of:

• Community based personal adviser support
• Community based ESOL for Retail
• Key skills support
• Retail training equivalent to NVQ level 1 or 2
• Work experience in the retail sector
• Intensive one to one job application support

The project was designed to support economically inactive or long term unemployed people from disadvantaged communities in Leicester. In addition to limited work experience and qualifications, many of the participants faced additional disadvantage in the labour market due to ESOL (English for speakers of other langauges) needs, numeracy needs, limited financial resouces, caring obligations and health difficulties.

195 people joined the Steps to Success project of whom 47 found employment, 50 gained retail qualifications, 40 gained Skills for Life qualifications and 35 joined further and higher education courses.

Documents
	Steps-to-success-report-[pdf]

The widespread dissemination of the project report and the Excellence gateway case study has enabled many employment programme providers to adopt Steps to Success approaches to client engagement and commmunity based personal adviser support. As a direct consequence of their achievements as a delivery partner within the Steps to Success project, one of the delivery partners, the Bangladesh Youth and Cultural Shomiti, was funded to undertake further work using the Steps to Success approach in 2008. The Steps to Success project findings helped inform the NIACE report, "Dare to Dream: learning journeys of Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Somali Women, 2008.

Robert Gray
robert.gray@niace.org.uk
+44 (0)116 2042780
NIACE
21 De Montfort Street
Leicester
LE1 7GE