- 10 young adults with additional learning needs from Barry have celebrated graduating from the inaugural DFN Project SEARCH programme at DOW Silicones
- over 1300 young people have now graduated and secured full-time paid employment through DFN Project SEARCH programmes in the UK
DFN Project SEARCH CEO Claire Cookson said: “Our partnership with DOW Silicones is a fantastic programme that is helping change the lives of young people with learning disabilities and autism and supporting individuals to find meaningful jobs.”
DFN Project SEARCH, a transition to employment programme, for young people with learning disabilities and autism is working with DOW Silicones to transform the employment prospects of young people with learning disabilities in the local area.
Interns and staff from this year’s programme celebrated at this year’s online graduation ceremony, after 10 students successfully completed the programme, gaining 800 hours of skills acquisition across the academic year.
Supported internships are a key tool in supporting young adults with learning disabilities and autism transition into competitive, integrated full-time jobs.
The DOW Silicones programme first began in September 2019 providing interns with a one-year transition to work programme in their final year of school or college.
The programme offers total workplace immersion, facilitates a seamless combination of employability skills instruction, career exploration and hands-on training through a series of job rotations within the host business.
The programme also includes a full-time on-site Instructor and Job Coach to support the interns to successfully transition from education into full-time employment.
Kerri Ince, Cardiff and Vale College Project SEARCH Instructor, said, "The first year of delivering the internship programme at Dow Silicones has seen fantastic success in terms of creating a new on site team, new work opportunities, securing support from a range of mentors from Dow and above all the growth of each intern on their personal journey. Despite the challenges, every Intern involved with the programme has remained positive, met and exceeded expectations both on the ground at DOW and via virtual learning and working. All interns engaged fully within the work site but also throughout lockdown with a focus on working hard to develop their employability skills. A huge thank you to everyone involved to make this possible. It has been a pleasure to see the interns grow in confidence and resilience and I look forward hearing the inspiring stories from the interns about their employment."
Kim Eversham, Project SEARCH Business Liaison at Dow Silicones UK Ltd said: "Project SEARCH is mutually beneficial to both the host business and to young people and their families. Simply by being inclusive and providing the support of a host business, a job coach and an instructor, we have seen these young people thrive and prove themselves to be perfectly capable of doing a job to a high standard. In addition, they bring diverse perspectives and a breath of fresh air to the workplace, helping us to adjust our internal practices to accommodate different learning styles.
A HUGE congratulations to: Amelia Kings, Jacob Evans, Connor Galsworthy, Amy McBeth, Charlie Anning-Phillips, Shannon James, Mathew Bowley, Kain Phillips, Adam Phillips, Abigail Finch.
We couldn’t be prouder and you have all performed incredibly well! Your confidence levels have gone through the roof, you have become very skilled young adults and demonstrated incredible flexibility, agility and adaptability throughout the entire year and most recently during the pandemic. It’s been an absolute pleasure for Dow to be part of your journey and many congratulations on successfully graduating from the Project SEARCH programme."
Claire Cookson, DFN Project SEARCH CEO, said: "Although graduations have been a little different this year, this hasn’t stopped us from celebrating the amazing achievements of our interns. Everyone deserves the right to aspire to the very best future – yet nationally only 5.9% of people with special educational needs and disabilities go on to secure full-time paid employment. This is why our programme with DOW Silicones is so important in helping to challenge and improve that statistic and enable positive change by building a more inclusive society for all."
Lily Beyer, the DFN Project SEARCH Lead who supports the amazing partnership at DOW Silicones, said: "We’re all just so proud of the interns graduating this year, and it’s so encouraging to see the programme continue to thrive and help make a difference to the lives of young people with learning disabilities and autism. The partners have been incredible, and it means so much to be supporting them and celebrating the intern’s incredible achievements with them. To witness the outcome of all their hard work throughout the year, it’s inspiring and I wish the interns all the very best in their new careers."
DFN Project SEARCH’s locally managed programmes are a proven way of helping young people with learning disabilities get long term careers as well as helping businesses and organisations get a more inclusive workforce.
Today the charity has 69 internationally recognised programmes across the UK, Ireland and Iberia, and has supported over 1500 interns into work, 1300 of which meet Project SEARCH’s success criteria. This criteria means that the work is over 16 hours per week, is not seasonal, is paid the prevailing wage for the role and that the work is in an integrated setting.
Over 60 per cent of graduates obtain full-time paid employment meeting this criteria, which is well beyond industry benchmarks. Yet an additional 10 per cent find some type of paid employment, meaning the lives of 70 per cent of graduates are changed for the better.
The DOW Silicones programme are proud to be a big part of that success, and are now looking forward to another exciting year with DFN Project SEARCH.
Blog by Kim Eversham Dow Silicones UK Ltd