Stepping Out Blog

The Stepping Out in-house training and education programme has been set up in order to provide a universal all-encompassing environment where young clients receive homely accommodation, 24 on-site staffing and regular training and educational courses.

Our in-house training programmes are delivered via our semi independent living projects, situated throughout Hertfordshire & North London.

We are now successfully registered with City & Guilds, which allows us to offer courses in-house in a flexible manner and means we no longer have to try to find ways around certain engagement barriers.

Stepping Out aim to help these young people back in to education, employment or training. However we found that this was not always easily done, particularly when accommodating a very challenging client or a client with sexualised behaviour, autism and or learning difficulties. In fact, after many clients, we found that:

• Local colleges would at times not accept a client due to historical backgrounds.
• Training providers where underfunded and over booked.
• Training providers required additional support or were not confident working with specific client groups (ex-offenders, sexually harmful etc.)
• Clients with learning difficulties or other mental health and emotional issues did not engage with third parties or group environments.
• Clients were not able to access support in order to actively ensure they attend and engaged with third party training organisations.

Thus, the solution was always to offer in-house training and education, rather than relying on conventional means of training. Not only is this a more reliable option, but it also allows the service user to gradually enter the world of education. We’ve found that clients displaying complex behaviours are more welcoming of these principles.

To summarise, our objectives with our in-house training is to:

• Offer flexible, nationally recognised training and education courses in-house (within Semi-Independent living provisions)
• Reduce the chances of a client leaving care NEET (Not in education, training or employment)
• Remove or reduce barriers to engagement, allowing clients with difficulties to receive training and educational support whilst residing at home.
• Reduce the company’s and the client’s dependence on under-funded third party training providers.
• Increase a young person’s confidence and positively affect their state of mind so that they feel capable of pursuing a particular career.
• Ensure the needs are met for clients whom may not be able to pursue education and or training in large group or public mainstream environments.