Newry young people achieve success on new programme | Latest Newry News, Newry Sport and Newry Business for Newry City

Newry young people achieve success on new programme

Young people from Newry have been part of a unique new pilot programme, the first of its kind in the UK, which has achieved a 91% success rate in finding meaningful employment for young people in Northern Ireland while simultaneously boosting social enterprise businesses.

Marianne Kearnes landed a job with Newry social enterprise SlackPress on the Advance Programme. Joining the celebration were Advance participants Marianne Kearnes and Noel Christy with Sandara Kelso-Robb from Lloyds Bank Foundation for NI, Enterprise Minister, Arlene Foster and Advance Programme Manager Audrey Murray

The Advance Programme, which has just been completed, targeted 40 young people aged between 18 and 26, giving them 24 weeks’ paid employment in a range of social enterprises throughout Northern Ireland with the goal of transforming these short term posts into permanent jobs.

The young people ranged from having no qualifications to graduates who didn’t have the experience to find a job.

Three young people from Newry took part in the programme: Danielle Doherty who worked at Southern Area Hospice, William O’Hagan who worked at Via Wings and Declan McAteer who worked at Davina’s Ark. Newry Enterprise Agency was also commended for its support of the Advance Programme.

In addition, Newry social enterprise SlackPress took on a new employee – Marianne Kearnes from Banbridge.

This £300,000 pilot project was been developed and managed by LEDCOM in conjunction with Enterprise Northern Ireland and funded by Lloyds Bank Foundation for NI in partnership with Lloyds Banking Group.

“This programme not only gave young people a chance to gain great experience and to secure a permanent job, it also gave a boost to the 27 social enterprises who found employees with new ideas, energy and vibrancy,” explained Programme Manager Audrey Murray.

“We had hoped to achieve a 50% success rate in finding permanent employment for these young people but it’s a testament to their ability and drive, and the support and mentoring we were able to give them, that in total 91% are now working.

“Businesses sometimes need to take a chance on young people and see the bigger picture,” she added.

Sandara Kelso-Robb, Executive Director of Lloyds Bank Foundation for NI said, “This was a new concept, it was a risk taking concept and it’s one we’ve now proven can work.

“This funding of £300,000 is the single largest award given in the Foundation’s history but it marries the areas of education, employment and enterprise that we have always supported.”

Before taking up their posts, each of the young people received personal mentoring support and completed Enterprise Northern Ireland’s Exploring Enterprise Programme, which gives them a recognised qualification in business studies, helps develop their entrepreneurial skills and prepares them to take up employment.

The participating businesses are companies that are seeking to grow and expand staff numbers; they will be ideally placed to bring in innovative young people with energy and creative ideas.

Enterprise, Trade and Investment Minister Arlene Foster said, “The Advance Programme is a wonderful initiative offering young people an opportunity to develop their skills and progress their career development.

“All those involved in the programme have worked extremely hard and have demonstrated a high level of commitment and professionalism, with 91% of participants now in permanent employment.

“Young people are our future and have an important role to play in growing our economy. I would like to commend all those involved in the implementation of this project which ensures that we continue to recruit and retain the most talented of people.”

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Posted by on Dec 10 2014. Filed under Business, Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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