West Midlands

Meeting the community's needs

Steve King, Pertemps Employment Alliance MD, Colin Birchall, Pertemps People Development Group CEO and Gareth Edwards, MD of Pertemps Learning and Education Alliance

Walk into any Pertemps People Development Group (PPDG) Advancement Centre and you will discover the same warm, welcoming atmosphere - whoever you may be.

You will feel the same buzz of excitement as people realise their ambitions and true potential, securing the qualification that was previously beyond them, finding the job they thought they could never achieve, establishing the business they never dreamed they could own.

What is truly remarkable is that they are the 'sub-section of society' referred to in the Leitch Report - the very people traditionally written off, those who have failed to believe in themselves, because society has put them on the dole for years. Blighted by poverty, academic underachievement and a chronic lack of skills, whole generations of the same family have been cast adrift from the labour market and confined to long-term unemployment. At PPDG, meeting a client who has been out of work for five years or more is an everyday occurrence - indeed, 12 per cent of clients we support have been unemployed for more than 10 years.

Take the inner-city ward of Aston, Birmingham. Previously home to a thriving manufacturing scene, the fabric of the area has changed substantially in the last 20 years. The 2002 Census of Population revealed that education was well below the Birmingham and national average, with extremely low GSCE pass rates and an above average level of absence and exclusion. Of almost 27,000 people residing in the area, only 49 per cent of the population aged 16-74 were in or actively seeking employment, 60 per cent of all households were said to be in receipt of some form of benefit payment, whilst 70 per cent of everyone under the age of 24 had never worked before.

Our response? We built a centre there. In a little over six months, we transformed 17,500 sq ft of derelict building into a £750,000 top-class facility, where people of any age, colour or creed could join together in a series of learning and employment activities.

The concept is based in the heart of the community, somewhere people congregate, somewhere you can get to on foot. Its unique selling position lies in the fact that everything is available under one roof, with other community groups present within the building - in essence a real attempt to capacity build resources in the community, rather than threaten existing provision.

Refreshments facilities are made available to all of our clients, we have a crèche, Credit Union, internet café, learndirect suite and even an activity basement complete with sports injuries clinic.

The support network is vast and varied, tailoring provision to the individual's needs in a way that many have not experienced before. It reverses the usual delivery process, with a method of engagement that is not merely jobs orientated, but that endeavours to meet people's needs, to offer real solutions to social and personal problems and therefore eliminate barriers to work. Establishing successful employment opportunities is a key part of the regeneration process, but is enhanced by occupational progression through the encouragement of lifelong learning.

Our approach is designed around best practice in the many Government Welfare to Work initiatives we have successfully delivered since 1997, including Employment Zone and New Deal. It also reflects the experience we have gained through our extensive involvement in community regeneration projects, recognizing the need for essential skills in literacy and numeracy, coupled with language training.

Being at the forefront of the recruitment industry allows us a unique insight into the education and skills requested by employers, providing us with the ability to shape the very sort of 'demand-led' approach championed by Lord Leitch. 'World class skills' has a very different meaning to different people at different stages of their lives - we operate at entry level, but our knowledge and expertise provides employers with a competent service that meets their needs.

As such, our clients are encouraged by our specialist tutors to invest time in their own skills development, participating in innovative and, crucially, economically relevant learning packages through learndirect. Re-motivated by the experience, they are able to capitalise on their emerging self-confidence and belief by working closely with a dedicated Employment Coach, who focuses on their individual aspirations, helping them to eliminate any barriers to work and express their employability skills even further through our Welfare to Work provision.

Clients can enjoy work tasters, placements and paid work experience opportunities, progress into sustainable employment via our huge list of partner employers, or even establish their own business through our expert self-employment advice.

As such we provide a holistic service with fluidity between the training and Welfare to Work arms of our business that offers a 'total solution' to the clients who come to us for support.

The list of achievements has been continually startling. During the first 14 weeks of 2006, our company reached a total of 528 jobs in the Employment Zone (EZ) areas of Birmingham, Liverpool and Teesside. In the equivalent period this year, 815 jobs were recorded in the same three regions - a massive rise of 54.4 per cent.

Our learndirect provision has made a significant impact on performance, with 20 per cent of all our unemployed clients achieving specified learning outcomes before moving directly into employment. According to Ofsted, the national average of unemployed people said to be seeking work is only 35 per cent. Thanks to the unique way in which we deliver our services, at PPDG almost 90 per cent of our client base fall into this 'minority' category.

Better still, since April 2000, over 80 per cent of those who found work through PPDG, kept it. By motivating our client base and creating a culture of achievement and advancement, we will continue to progress.

Our rewards as a business have been significant, culminating in a truly phenomenal period in which PPDG was recognised as an Investor in Excellence, received ISO:9001 accreditation and given the prestigious Customer Excellence Award at the Confederation of British Industry's (CBI) annual Growing Business Awards. Perhaps most rewarding of all, we have also been honoured with the Matrix standard and ALI Grade 1 in recognition of the consistently outstanding level of advice and guidance given to their clients - with only four official client complaints out of the 500,000 who accessed our services in 2006.

We are justifiably proud of the success being achieved by our dedicated team, who demonstrate genuine enthusiasm and commitment to finding employment, education or training opportunities for the long-term unemployed. Within our organisation we can be the very best at preparing people for the world of work - through the diagnostic work we do, through the assessment of skills and through providing people with the solutions and support they require.

We firmly believe that everyone possesses a spark of brilliance within them - our passion is to walk the hardest paths to unearth that spark and nurture it.