We are pleased to welcome our first cohort of our Kickstart Participants joined the HEART Education Trust on 8 th March 2021. The Kickstart Scheme provides funding to create new job placements for 16 to 24 year olds on Universal Credit who are at risk of long term unemployment.
These placements will last for six months and over this time the participants will gain work experience, develop employability skills and undertake further training and qualifications.
We are offering placements in a range of areas including:
Graduate Teaching Interns
Early Years Teaching Assistants
SEND Teaching Assistants
Learning Support Assistants
Office Administration Trainees
We currently have 24 Kickstart participants on placements across the HEART Education Trust and will have a further 6 join during the Summer Term. Each participant has been allocated a mentor in school and will become part of the school staff for the duration of their placement to give
them high quality work experience.
Utilising the grant we receive for each participant we have devised a programme of experience, study and qualifications for these Kickstart participants which is of very high quality. We feel that young people have had a particularly tough time with the COVID-19 pandemic and that this is a
way we can give something back and improve their life chances. The HEART Education is committed to raising the aspiration of young people and enabling them to develop and grow. We felt that the Kickstart scheme fulfils our ethos and vision. We have worked in conjunction with Norfolk County Council and external providers Vision Education and First Aid at Work Norfolk to be able to offer the participants a range of nationally recognised qualifications including:
Level 2 Supporting Teaching and Learning
Level 3 Teaching and Leading Primary PE
Level 3 Foundation Level School Business Administration
Paediatric First Aid Training
Alongside these qualifications the participants will also be accessing nationally recognised CPD certificated training in a range of areas specific to their placements and interests. As part of their placement each participant will be creating a portfolio to take to prospective employers
evidencing their training, qualifications and experience.
The placements commenced with an intensive week of training which we delivered at Carrow Road. Norwich City Football Club were keen to work in partnership with us and provided the training facilities at a reduced rate. We felt that it was important to provide professional facilities and training and an external speaker commented on how professional our training programme, presentations and delivery were.
Over the course of the week we delivered training in a range of areas to ensure that the Kickstart Participants were school ready. This included training in a number of areas which underpin the roles that are participants will carry out in our schools:
Introduction to the HEART Education Trust – vision and values
Safeguarding Training
Online Safety
Prevent
Code of Conduct and Expectations of staff
Behaviour Policy
Managing Challenging Behaviour
Maths
Phonics and Reading
EYFS
Supporting SEND
Supporting Teaching and Learning
During the school Easter holiday our participants have been busy with their two day paediatric first aid training. They have also spent 4 days learning new PE skills which they are keen to implement in their classrooms during the Summer Term. This training will continue with regular take on sessions over the next six months to extend and deepen the participants knowledge.
The participants have all started in their placements schools and we have been very pleased by the standard of the participants and their levels of commitment and enthusiasm displayed so far.
We hope to recruit a second cohort of Kickstart participants to complete a six month placement starting in September 2021. If you are interested please contact Sarah Porter on kickstart@thehearteducationtrust.co.uk for further information.
