Supported Employment: SVQ Awards

Cosgrove Care – who have supported people with learning disabilities since 1962 – are celebrating their first SVQ Awards ceremony for Service Users placed on their Supported Employment Scheme.

 

The Supported Employment Scheme, launched in 2007 and based in a busy Internet Café in Skirving Street in the heart of Shawlands, aims to help young people with learning disabilities escape from what is known as the “Benefits’ trap” by giving them practical and vocational training as well as work experience.

 

According to Scottish Government statistics, in September 2007 only 16 per cent of the 22,875 adults in Scotland with learning disabilities were in employment. Less than 7% were in ‘open employment’ where jobs are gained and sustained under the same conditions as staff without learning disabilities.

 

The main barriers to the employment of people with learning disabilities seem to be lack of expectation from parents and schools, isolation and exclusion from mainstream social activities, and lack of provision for young people to obtain work experience in a realistic work setting. Barriers such as these result in their being marginalised and at risk of poverty.

 

Therefore, it was a tremendous achievement that, on 26th March, five young people who have been supported by Cosgrove received their SVQ Certificates in Customer Services Level 1 in the presence of the prospective Labour parliamentary candidate Anas Sarwar. This celebratory event also saw a further fifteen trainees congratulated on completing their work experience and retail skills training. Families, local businessmen, politicians and press were also present to celebrate their success.

 

Funded by The Robertson Trust, Future Builders, The Laidlaw Trust, The Equitable Charitable Trust, The Triangle Trust, and Hilton in the Community Foundation, Cosgrove’s Supported Employment Scheme is now supporting fifteen school children and young persons to enable them to continue to have work experience and vocational training - helping them to reach their full potential.