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The Platform Project Charity Events

Thu, 28 Apr 2022 09:29:26 GMT

The Platform Project is a not-for-profit business with the goal to bridge the gap between education and employment and give young people aged 16-24 the experience needed to create their own path. By participating in youth led business projects, they get to develop their skills and confidence which can be added to their CVs.

One of those projects includes organising charity events and this upcoming one is specifically done to raise money for the Platform Project.

On Tuesday 14th June, the interns have arranged a quiz night located and arranged with The Ridge. All the interns are responsible for everything, from the planning, to the communication with third parties and promoting the event.

On the day, doors open at 6.30pm with the quiz starting an hour later. There will be food specifically for the night, a platter with a vegetarian alternative. Tickets are sold for entry and tickets combined with the entry and food and they’re £5 and £12 respectively each.

When creating the quiz, it was decided that when people are taking part, people would be in teams and estimated that teams would have 2-6 people in each.

Also on the night, there will be a stall for a raffle which would take place midway through the evening, so everyone is organising the prizes and how the raffle is going to work.

Alongside this The Platform Project also has another event taking place in May, Project Pledge with all the managers and interns taking part. Project Pledge entails that everyone taking part are individually raising money for the Platform Project throughout May.

There’s are wide range of different types of pledges that everyone is doing from walking/running challenges, creating and selling merchandise, 24-hour gaming stream, fancy dress etc. How it works is people would donate to a specific person’s pledge which would get added to the overall funds raised from everyone taking part which will then be shown on the Project Pledge page on the Platform Project website.

If you want to donate to any of these, click on one of the links below!

Four new Non-Executive Directors

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 11:54:39 GMT

Left to right: Victoria Parker, Sadie Sharp, Andy Langley, Chris Blackwell and Helen Hancock.

The Platform Project in Dorcan is excited to announce that they have appointed 4 new Non-Executive Directors to their board of Directors.

“The Swindon based non-profit is an innovative development organisation that helps young people gain the skills, confidence and experience they need to launch their career. The appointment of the new Directors sees them bring more industry leading professionals on board to help them bridge the gap between education and employment by providing work ready, capable, and confident entry level talent.”

The four new Directors bring with them a range of commercial skill sets, including recruitment, legal, financial, and corporate partnerships. Victoria Parker is Operations Director for Outsource UK - a professional and technical recruitment and workforce solutions provider who have their head office in Swindon. She joins The Platform Project Board as the Proposition Lead, helping the non-profit develop its commercial talent offering to employers.

Victoria said “Having previously been involved with mentoring young people, I was really keen to join The Platform Project to support them with the fantastic work they are doing. Some of the key objectives for the project going forwards are to help local employers with ways to better engage and retain young people, and hopefully I can draw on my recruitment experience to assist with this.”

Chris Blackwell is a Co-Director of the Swindon based mortgage advice firm, TED Mortgages, and is chair of local networking group ‘Business Wise’. Chris has joined The Platform Project as partnerships lead and will be helping to broker relationships with local employers.

He said “I joined The Platform Project as having struggled with confidence and gaining employment when I was young myself, I feel that helping young people develop work skills and find work experience is an area that doesn't have enough support. The more young people in Wiltshire we can help, the better it is for our community, and I am looking forward to using my professional skills to support a very worthwhile cause.”

Helen Hancock is a qualified solicitor and founded the local Swindon based charity ‘Doing it for Dan.’ Helen said “I am thrilled to be joining the Board of The Platform Project which does such fantastic work preparing young people for employment in our local community. Having previously experienced how youth mentoring and development can have such a positive impact on the lives of young people I’m excited to be involved with a project that inspires and empowers young people to reach their full potential and I hope that I am able to use my legal and charity experiences to contribute to its ongoing success.”

Michelle Simpson has a background in strategic partnerships, having worked with Nationwide, The Big Issue, and other large corporates. Michelle is now Strategic Opportunities lead at The Platform Project and will be helping create relationships with large organisations who have similar goals.

Michelle said “I feel quite passionate about ensuring young people are given as many career choices as possible and are provided with the support network to help them succeed. The Platform Project does exactly this with very practical and tangible outputs. It is a privilege to be working with the team at Platform Project, to have the opportunity to contribute to the future success of the business as well as helping the young people reach their potential.”

The new team of Non-Executive Directors will be working with the MD Sadie Sharp to extract the innovative skills and techniques that The Platform Project has developed so that employers, schools, and other community groups can apply their models and frameworks to develop the young people they work with.

The Platform Project is delighted to welcome them all to the team.

For more information on The Platform Project and how they can help you develop the young people you work with, please visit www.platformproject.co.uk/

Employers – are you struggling to fill your current vacancies?

Fri, 03 Dec 2021 09:08:00 GMT

Employers – are you struggling to fill your current vacancies?

What’s the problem?

With UK businesses experiencing a record high in the number of job vacancies, it’s apparent that companies in every sector are struggling to fill vacancies since the pandemic.

The number of job vacancies in August to October 2021 continued to rise to a new record of 1,172,000, an increase of 388,000 from the pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic January to March 2020 level, with 15 of the 18 industry sectors showing record highs

Research from the Office for National Statistics shows that every industry has shown positive quarterly growth from Q2 to Q3 2021. So, it’s clear that with the reopening of the economy, businesses are busier than ever but as you’ve probably experienced in one way or another yourself, staffing issues are a huge problem.

However we then have the other side of the equation, the job seekers and in particular the young people entering work. According to the latest House of Commons survey an estimated 728,000 young people aged 16-24 are listed as NEET (not in education, employment or training) in the UK.

The coronavirus outbreak has particularly impacted on the labour market status of young people, with a large fall in employment and a rise in unemployment amongst 16-24 year olds. Studies have shown that time spent NEET can have a detrimental effect on physical and mental health, and increase the likelihood of unemployment, low wages, or low quality of work later on in life. This perpetuates the industry struggle to get access to skilled resource later on.

These statistics seem to indicate a problem…there is clearly a talent gap that needs addressing and we believe we have the answer!

How does The Platform Project help?

If you need a bit of background as to what we do, we help young people get work-ready and bridge the gap between education and employment. In fact, we’ve helped hundreds of 16-24 year olds to get into paid work, self-employment or go on to higher education in the past five years.

We offer an experiential environment where young people receive training, mentoring and can complete projects in line with our internship programme. They’ll do things like build a website, attend virtual and in-person meetings, write blogs, complete spreadsheets, send emails and more – all things that ensure they can hit the ground running in the workplace.

As we’ve been busy training up our young people and sending them out into the world, we’ve seen a huge 89% of them go on to launch their careers, so we thought we must be doing something right!

Our organisation is working hard to reduce the number of young people that are NEET in Swindon (and hopefully UK wide in the next year). We need employers like you to work with us and take advantage of the huge benefits you get when you hire young talent.

What are the advantages of employing and developing young people?

The benefits of employing young talent and nurturing them within your business are plentiful, we’re always amazed at their attitudes and approach to work. Here are just a few of the advantages;

· Growing your workforce via young talent is cost-effective - nurturing and developing talent is cheaper than buying it

· Having a young person start out with you means you can build your own talent pipeline

· Young people can be a positive breath of fresh air and bring unique skills to your business

· Young people bring diversity into your workforce, provide a new perspective and investing in young talent elevates your reputation as a local employer

With the Government Kickstart Scheme running until March 2022, it’s the ideal option to start your journey as a employer of young talent. Beyond this, there are also plenty of options around apprenticeships and grants to fund employment and training.

We’ve developed four offerings that you can use to get the most out of employing and developing young people. Think of us as an extra recruitment and training arm to your business, we have the skills you need to create an up and coming talent pool within your company that will help you grow and achieve your long-term goals.

Our services for employers

Tired of scouring the open market, wasting time reading CV’s & taking interviews?

We train our interns to be work ready and we can also match them to your recruitment requirements. This gives you the right talent when you need it and the assurance they have developed a set of transferrable professional skills when they start with you.

Benefits of hiring our interns...

· They are work ready, with good technical and interpersonal skills

· Quick access to entry level, highly capable talent

· More time and cost effective than open market searching

· Helping to reduce the number of young people out of work

By choosing our skilled interns to fill your vacancies you can be assured of their work readiness and capability.

Start

Have you found a young person that’s perfect for the role but they don’t quite have the skills to be productive from day one?

Start gets your entry level hires work ready – fast! This employability skills programme is perfect for before or just as they start working for you. It takes around 4 weeks and is a combination of working with us and you, so they can still integrate with your organisation from the start.

Benefits of the Start programme...

· Ideal for young people with little or no work experience in a professional work environment

· We train them in the key professional skills they need to thrive

· Reduces the time you need to spend building their basic skills

· Develops the work-ready confidence they need to integrate into your team

You recruit them and we and we get them working to their full potential.

Stretch

Are your managers finding it hard to adjust to an entry level direct report or struggling to develop them?

Stretch is our training programme for managers on how to get the most out of your entry level talent. It’s not always easy teaching someone the ropes (no matter how old they are) so we’ve developed a range of practical skills-based training programmes to help managers embrace and excel at managing young people in entry level roles.

Benefits of Stretch training...

· Improves management skills and engagement for productivity gains

· Improves new starter retention by reducing people management challenges

· Adopts tried and tested approaches to balance the management time spent on developing entry level talent

· A range of individual specialist CPD workshops also available in topics such as managing additional learning needs, supporting mental health in young people and safeguarding practices

We build the skills that your managers need to help young people thrive and stay productive within your business.

Support

Are your managers too stretched to spare the time to support a young person through their probation?

Our Support offering is 121 structured support for young people in their probation period. We provide trained coaches who follow our new-starter development programme that supports young people to adapt and excel when they join an organisation.

The programme includes...

· Managing work and time effectively

· Building relationships with stakeholders

· Having a confident presence in key workplace situations

· Self-awareness and reflective learning for continual growth and other key topics

Our tailored support programme helps improve retention during the probation period and increases young people's effectiveness in the early stages of starting work. Management resource is then freed up to work on other areas of the business.

Alternatively, we can deliver this programme as a training course for your managers, they can then learn how to apply our model to your new starters directly.

How much do you charge?

We pride ourselves in providing a market leading service with budget busting prices to fit every need. So, although these services are commercially charged, they certainly won't break the bank. We’ll work out a cost-effective price depending on your individual requirements.

Plus…any small profit we make goes straight back into our not-for-profit model to fund the charitable work we do to help reduce youth unemployment. We choose not to make huge profits on our services so you can help us to change the world, one young person at a time.

What are the next steps?

Get in touch with us directly if you’re looking to make a difference and embrace the huge benefits of employing entry level talent in your organisation. It’s amazing what young people can achieve and seeing it for yourself is the best way to start, so we always welcome all local businesses to come visit us and see what we get up to day to day.

If we all work together, we can make a difference for our young people in Swindon, helping them improve their prospects, unlocking talent, increasing their confidence and helping them to create a better future.

Just contact us on 0300 030 1232 or email partnerships@platformproject.co.uk and start your journey!

Platform Project aims to boost employability for the Covid-generation

Thu, 25 Nov 2021 12:00:25 GMT

Platform Project aims to boost employability for the Covid-generation

The Platform Project is extending its support to young people who are struggling to find work or are disadvantaged by their circumstances.

The project is an enterprise business that supports people aged 13 to 21 by providing hands-on, practical work experience and training.

Based in Swindon, the initiative has received additional funding to help more people as the country begins to feel the full effects of the pandemic.

There are concerns that a ‘Covid-generation’ of young people will see high rates of youth unemployment which are predicted to exceed the levels seen in the early 1980s (Guardian Oct ’20).

The additional funding support for The Platform Project has enabled it to expand to support an additional 100 young people.

Founder, Sadie Sharp, said, “We have secured funding to offer more support during this time and we have also been able to reach out to schools to support them too. Some young people are already disadvantaged because they have not performed well in mainstream education, or their social circumstances have not allowed them to thrive when it comes to career choices, and now their options are even more limited.

“With the devastating effect of the pandemic these young people are finding it even harder to transition into work and take their next steps in life, which can have a much longer lasting impact on mental health and future unemployment challenges. We are trying to scale-up as fast as possible to make sure we can do our bit to address the increasing need.”

As part of its expansion, the project will soon launch a recruitment drive for Kickstarter roles for young people aged 16-24. The six-month placements will give candidates the opportunity to gain experience in areas including administration, IT, marketing, sales, youth work and videography.

Sadie added, “This growth has enabled the project to expand our innovative youth enterprise model to offer more young people places on our internship programme.

“Young people aged 16-21 can do up to six months voluntary work experience within the project, rotating around different roles including a youth magazine and a digital media marketing agency. The practical, hands-on experiences help to build CVs and employability skills whilst providing candidates with the opportunity to try out different career roles, before being paired up with a mentor to help with their next steps.”

To fund this activity, the project has been given support from the National Lottery, Children In Need, the Wiltshire Community Foundation, the Social Enterprise Support Fund and the John Lewis Partnership amongst others.

To find out more, visit The Platform Project’s website or email info@PlatformProject.co.uk

Brighter future for Platform Project interns

Thu, 25 Nov 2021 11:45:26 GMT

A brighter future for Swindon's Youth

Two teenagers from Swindon are celebrating being offered their dream jobs thanks to The Platform Project’s internship scheme.

Charlotte Hinds (18) is now working in the hospitality sector for PGL in South Cerney and Daniella Page, also 18, is employed at First City Nursing Services in Swindon.

The Platform Project, based in the Dorcan area of Swindon, is a social enterprise that helps young people aged 17-24 find employment by helping them develop skills such as IT, administration, marketing, sales and videography in a youth led ‘training workplace’.

The interns work on a number of industry standard projects spanning experiences such as online publishing, project management and self-employment to help them build up their CV with meaningful experiences and figure out what they want from their early-stage careers. The work experience internships have been designed to accelerate a young person’s progression into their next steps after finishing education, and have supported over 100 young people this past year alone.

After dropping out of college, Charlotte, who lives in South Cerney, didn’t know what she wanted to do. She knew that college was not for her and that she didn’t want to be stuck in a dead-end job, but she was getting no response from her applications for dozens of jobs.

Then she saw details of The Platform Project on social media and signed up to join their internship scheme.

Charlotte, said, “My very first project with The Platform Project was helping to make a video on anger management and taking photos behind the scenes to make a trailer clip. It was so much fun! But I also learned how to take a client brief, plan a project, and work in a team.”

Soon afterwards, Charlotte got involved in projects planning two charitable events. She also continued to develop her photography skills behind the scenes at exhibitions and participated in a fashion shoot.

Charlotte, continued, “When I first joined The Platform Project, I had no self-confidence. I didn’t believe in myself at all. I was very shy and didn’t talk to people. Now I will go up to people and talk to them. The internship has helped me massively with my communication skills and people skills. I have so much more confidence in myself enabling me to apply for a job, talk to people on the phone and write formal letters to companies.”

When she went for an interview for her current role, they asked her what she had done at The Platform Project and with the projects she had worked on.

“It was great to be able to put my experience at The Platform Project on my CV. My new employer said it showed I was hard working and had a wide range of experience and skills for someone my age. I am so excited at getting this job in the hospitality sector, as it is exactly what I wanted and I am now starting a new chapter in my life and am confident about my future.”

Daniella, who lives in Dorcan, Swindon, joined the internship scheme in March and, after four months there, she had secured herself a job with First City Nursing Services.

“It has really supported me gaining confidence, learning new skills and enhancing my talents,” said Daniella. “Getting a job in care has always been a dream of mine, but I never believed in the past that it would become a reality because of my low confidence.”

During her four months with The Platform Project, Daniella focused her creative writing passion to produce content for the projects youth led blog #iDare as well as working with an employability mentor to help her develop her work readiness skills such as timekeeping, interviewing and organisation skills.

Daniella said, “If you would like to feel welcomed into and involved in a professional team and find new and exciting opportunities for the future, The Platform Project is the place for you.”

Sadie Sharp, Founder of The Platform Project, added, “I am super proud of these two who really embraced their time with us and all the experiences on offer. It’s so difficult for young people to get into work without any work experience, and it’s a difficult cycle to break, particularly when the number of people applying for entry level jobs is so high as a result of the pandemic. We have really honed our internship programme to give young people a real, practical and hands on work experience that loads their CV with experiences that can really help them stand out to employers and secure entry level jobs with a professional level of skills. We are fortunate enough to have secured an enormous amount of funding to increase the places we can now offer to young people in and around Swindon.”

If you know a young person looking to increase their confidence and employability skills The Platform Project are now interviewing young people to fill their internship placements starting from September. To find out more, email: internships@platformproject.co.uk .

Coronavirus grant helps young people get back on the pathway to work and training

Thu, 25 Nov 2021 11:22:50 GMT

Coronavirus grant helps young people get back on the pathway to work and training

The Platform Project in Swindon, a social enterprise group helping young people on the margins of education and training become more employable, has been boosted by a coronavirus fund grant.

It has been awarded £13,300 from Wiltshire Community Foundation’s Coronavirus Response and Recovery Fund to help with salary costs. The fund has distributed more than £1.1 million through more than 260 grants.

Sadie Sharp, the project’s Managing Director, said the number of 18 to 24-year-olds out of work since the pandemic began has tripled, which prompted The Platform Project to evolve the way it works with those who are referred by organisations including schools, social services and other youth charities.

Many of the young people aged between 16 and 21 coming to the project have missed school because of exclusion, problems at home or being caught up in crime. Others have been in care or have additional needs. Most of them have seen their situation worsen during the pandemic.

Sadie explained, “They are coming to us as a bit of a shell of a young person. They lack confidence and social skills when talking to new people. They are apprehensive about trying new things and we see a lot of anxiety.”

The Platform Project has previously run separate commercial projects to provide its young people with business skills and experience, including digital magazine i-Dare , start-up firms producing clothing and mugs made by young people and a digital marketing agency. But now it is running them all concurrently with up to 40 ‘interns’ working on them for at least ten hours a week for six months.

The interns produce the magazine once a month, work on their own start-up businesses based on their interests and are also collaborating on a project to support a voluntary group – the current group has chosen homeless charity Threshold.

“They have team meetings to discuss the projects they are working on that day and are using Teams, planner boards, collaboration functions and all of the IT they would be using in the workplace,” continued Sadie.

“We are working on the basics like active listening skills and being prepared for meetings and they are getting experience of project management and working to deadlines. It’s an accelerated way of developing their general employability skills and confidence. Employers now want what they term ‘intra-preneurs’ – self-motivated people, who can spot opportunities and have good internal customer service skills.

“We are very grateful for the grant, it has been really nice listening to the interns’ conversations here in the office and hearing the wheels turning, it has a nice buzz about it. The ball is rolling because the model works rather than because I am pushing it.”

Fiona Oliver, joint Chief Executive of Wiltshire Community Foundation, said, “We have had a long association with The Platform Project and have always been impressed by the way its positivity and practical help instils belief in young people as well as giving them a pathway into work or further learning.

“Our fund is there to help the community recover from the dreadful year we have all experienced and this is a perfect way of using it.”

To donate to the Wiltshire and Swindon Coronavirus Response and Recovery Fund, or to find out how to apply for a grant, go to wiltshirecf.org.uk.

Pictured above: Some of the young people on The Platform Project’s intern scheme whose employability is being boosted by a Wiltshire Community Foundation grant .

Could you give your time and skills to support young people in Swindon?

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 14:41:17 GMT

Could you give your time and skills to support young people in Swindon?

New Non-Executive Directors are being sought to support The Platform Project and join its board as it seeks to help more young people in Swindon who are at risk of unemployment.

Based in the Dorcan area of Swindon, the community interest company (CIC) is seeking hands-on professionals and business owners with a passion for inspiring and empowering young people.

The current board is run by local leaders, business owners and professionals, who use their skills, experience and contacts to help manage the organisation’s rapid growth and ensure that governance processes are followed appropriately.

The Platform Project’s new directors will be expected to be hands-on for about two half days a month and ideally come from an education, business or enterprise background.

Sadie Sharp, Founder of The Platform Project, said, “We are looking for two or three non-executive volunteer directors to join us and support our mission to reduce the number of young people who are not in the workplace.

“Having been a management consultant before launching The Platform Project I’ve worked with a lot of boards and c-suite professionals and I am privileged to say that ours is one of the most functional, supportive and friendly boards that I’ve ever worked with. Their help and input have been critical to our success.”

Current directors include James Phipps, a philanthropic local entrepreneur and former chairman and CEO of Excalibur; Jon Joyce, director of Metro Bank, Swindon; Andy Langley, CEO of tech firm Ntegra and employment law solicitor, Cerys Ashley of Baker Ashley, South Wales.

Each incumbent has a three-year tenure in a director’s role and vacancies are now available due to its expansion and following the resignation of former director Andrew Wells of Swindon Borough Council due to a job change.

Chairman James Phipps said, “It’s great to be able to work with a non-profit that’s making such an incredible difference in the lives of local young people. The Board has a really strong commercially strategic mix of skills and it’s great to see how we’ve directly been able to influence and support the strategic direction of the project to help to achieve its ambitious growth goals.”

Now in its fifth year, the Swindon social enterprise bridges the gap between education and employment by preparing young people for work. The CIC works with a range of funders, schools and employers to support target groups of young people.

The organisation also has a strong commercial element. The team works with a number of different schools to diversify the school’s curriculum. They also work with employers to help them find work-ready, entry-level talent.

Sadie, added, “We’ve grown so quickly since we started four years ago. Our big picture, long-term goal is to see if we can build our model into a social franchise, repeating our successful approach in other geographical areas.

“We are getting there one step at a time, but we would love to hear from you if you think you can help us get there a little bit quicker.”

The team are particularly interested in those who can offer support around finance, marketing, strategy, education, and local authority commissioning and are committed to developing a diverse doard, so welcome applications from a wide range of backgrounds.

If you are interested in finding out more visit: www.platformproject.co.uk/workwithus . The closing date is 5pm on Friday 26th November 2021.

Pictured above: Sadie Sharp Founder of The Platform Project and James Phipps, current Chairman of the current Board of Directors.

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