54% of participants moved into meaningful employment.

About the Project

The Fusion Project was originally intended to offer work experience with some Employability and Communication Skills training, while acquiring advanced Digital Skills, over a six-months period.

In part as a consequence of the pandemic, and in part due to the many difficulties experienced by the students, the project was extended to 12 months with an increased focus on digital literacy and basic IT training. Formal training was made up of twice-weekly training sessions (one on Employability Skills and the other on Digital and IT Skills), weekly homework review sessions and 1-2-1 sessions held up to three times a week.

The aim of the project was to enable all participants to fully understand their capabilities and to gain a better understanding of what meaningful employment would mean to them.

Background

Inspired by her grandfather Pat Bearfield, who set up a social enterprise called Bulldog Ltd which offered people in the criminal justice system training in construction, Anna Aprea joined Graft Thames Valley in 2018, to create a programme that would enable individuals with multiple and complex barriers to employment, to become more confident. Based on her experience and knowledge, she felt that for this to come about both good employability and digital skills were essential (read more about Anna's personal journey here).

Thanks to generous funding from the People’s Postcode Lottery (to the tune of £16k, for which we are extremely grateful) we were able to work with 13 individuals who faced severe and complex barriers to employment through the Fusion Project that ran from the 17^th August 2020 to the 15^th August 2021.

 

Participants

All 13 participants faced significant and complex barriers to work. Most were either neurodivergent and/or disabled and all had been unemployed for over one year. Amongst those classified as having recent work experience (within the previous five years), the type of work held had been short-term and had left the participants anxious about the prospect of working again.

Because it was a fully-funded programme, we decided to include no admission criteria to enrol on the course. That meant that we had applicants with different levels of literacy, numeracy and confidence in basic IT.

Results

Through sustained support and confidence building, seven (54%) participants moved into paid employment by the end of the project, increasing to 10 (76%) people one year after completion. Whilst only two participants moved into administrative work after the course, it is clear that the focus on IT and administrative employability skills helped build confidence and offered participants the tools needed to help them progress into other areas of paid employment, all of which now include some "digital" element.

Case Studies

Student A

Though the programme proved too much for Student A, whose Dyslexia was particularly severe and which led them to leave after less than a month, the time with us had built their understanding of a need for technology to help them cope with whatever work they found. After consulting with us, they started using screen reading software which has allowed Student A to move into employment by taking a job as a driver (one of their favourite activities).

Students B, C and D

These participants, all of whom had served a spell in prison, had limited computer literacy when they started on the Fusion project. Two flourished during the time they were on the project and are now both in employment. The third set up their own company, having acquired enough skills to be able to survive.

Student E

Student E, who suffers from mental ill-health, was overwhelmed by other problems competing for their attention. Though they enjoyed the more visual work they were carrying out during the project, they realised that they needed to be more active and in the "outdoors". Though Student E still has to battle with their mental illness, they happily found part-time work with a gardening company soon after leaving the Fusion Project.

Learnings

We learned a lot from this Pilot:

1. The education system, as it currently stands, does not equip individuals to survive well in a digital economy.
2. All the participants had varying levels of difficulty with basic literacy and numeracy.
3. The more complex the barriers to employment, the longer the amount of time needed to help the individual grow in confidence - at least enough to envisage working in a "non-neurodiverse/disability aware" environment.
4. Autism comes in as many different forms as there are people. Understanding which teaching styles work best for each is a slow process that requires time and patience.
5. The "economies of scale" model adopted by successive governments is not adequate for the majority of job seekers who have barriers to employment.

The birth of a Supported Virtual Assistant Company

Understanding the importance of work experience, while working, Anna's long-held dream of creating a social enterprise finally took shape thanks to the Lloyds School for Social Entrepreneurs programme as well as the kind help of the students on this project who with patience and good grace, participated in focus groups and surveys to help define the Supported Virtual Assistant Company into what it is today, and what it intends to become over the course of the next few years.

Below are some of the (anonymised) Christmas messages our students wrote to our funders to thank them for supporting Graft by funding the Fusion project.