News Tag: ERSA Awards

The industry awards are an opportunity to recognise your staff and organisation’s achievements in supporting the nations jobseekers and learners.

• Why enter an award this year
• The awards are open and free to enter until 1 October – for individuals, organisations and employers!
• Judged by an independent panel of experts – see below
• Sponsorship available! Get in touch for an informal chat

dev.ersa.org.uk/ersaawards22                #ERSAAwards22                  dev.ersa.org.uk/news

Thank you to our category sponsors and supporters; 

• BDB Pitmans LLP
• Fedcap Employment/Fedcap Scotland
• Education Development Trust
• Institute of Employability Professionals
• Successful Mums
• Saffron Interactive
• The Digital College
• The Learning Curve Group

The ERSA Employability Awards 2022

The award categories:

1. Frontline Adviser of the Year – sponsored by The Institute of Employability Professionals
   Employment advisers and job coaches who have demonstrated exceptional commitment in a frontline role
2. Frontline Manager of the Year –  sponsored by The Institute of Employability Professionals
   Frontline managers or team leaders who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to leading their frontline team to excellent performance and customer achievements
3. Employer of the Year – sponsored by Successful Mums 
   Employers showing exceptional commitment by partnering with providers in their area, supporting disadvantaged and long-term unemployed jobseekers
4. Significant Achiever of the Year – sponsored by Learning Curve
   Organisations delivering employability programmes can nominate exceptional jobseekers and learners they support
5. Team of the Year – Disability and health – sponsored by The Digital College
   Frontline teams providing disability and wellbeing services, including mental health support and social prescribing
6. Team of the Year – Hardest hit – Education Development Trust
   Frontline teams supporting individuals and communities in hardest hit sectors, including low-paid workers, young people NEET, diverse communities, experience of the justice system, women, older workers, people with learning disabilities and other disadvantaged groups
7. Team of the Year – Hidden heroes – sponsorship available
   Working behind the scenes to enable services: IT/digital services, service design, research and evidence
8. Sector Innovator of the Year – sponsorship availableRoll out of IT equipment to participants, digital accessibility, behind the scenes innovation to change ways of working
9. Community Partnership of the Year – sponsored by Saffron Interactive
   Organisations working together to form partnerships that support local communities already furthest from the labour market, and have been hit hardest by the pandemic
10. Outstanding Contribution to the Sector – sponsored by Fedcap Employment and Fedcap Scotland
    A truly inspiring individual who will be nationally recognised as a champion and ambassador for the sector

The awards are judged by an independent panel of sector experts, this year they include;

Dr Katy Jones, Research Fellow, Centre for Decent Work and Productivity; Naomi Phillips, Director of Policy, Research & Influencing, Learning and Work Institute, Jagdeep Soor, Head of  Strategic Partnerships, Pathways Group, Nicola Inge, Employment & Skills Director, Business in the Community, Gill Holmes, Director – Contract Management and Partner Delivery and Tammy Fevrier, Youth Employment and Skills, Department for Work and Pensions

Previous award winners!

2021 Award Winners Announced in ‘The Covid Employability Challenge’
The ERSA Employability Awards 2020 – The winners! | ERSA

Sponsor an award category! Remaining sponsorship categories; 

• Team of the Year – Hidden heroes
• Sector Innovator of the Year

First come, first deal done basis! Email Laura for an informal discussion. 
Benefits include;

• Brand association with ERSA and the category
• Opportunities to promote your brand through ERSA bulletins, YouTube showreel, blogs, social media, ERSA events and the ERSA website – in the run up and beyond!
• Invitation to the shortlist announcement – planned as a networking event in London on 3 November
• Two tickets to attend the winners announcement in person and present your award category at an evening dinner ceremony, on 30 November as part of the ERSA Conference (30 November – 1 December 2022), in central Birmingham – attended by ministers, employers, sector leaders and other stakeholders
• Other sponsorship opportunities include networking drinks, venue, media and supporter – rates start from £500!

Read more

Full details at dev.ersa.org.uk/ersaawards22 #ERSAAwards22

Team of the Year – Disability and Health

Frontline teams providing disability and wellbeing services, including mental health support.

The finalists:

St. Joseph’s Approved Premises Bike Project, nominated by Career Connect
The Bike Project offers weekly one-to-one tuition to participants by mechanics in repairing and recycling bicycles. Seventeen men – offenders with mental health difficulties – took part during the last year, cultivating practical, vocational, team-building and problem-solving skills and helping to prepare for independent living.

The Case-UK Mental Health in-work Support team, Case-UK Limited
Case UK is a social-impact company which supports people to have a happy and fulfilled life.
The team of professionals includes individuals who have experienced poor mental health and over half have some form of disability. During the lockdown, services were fully operational with no impact on support and the team also developed new ways of working.

Gloucestershire County Council
Gloucestershire County Council’s Forwards Employment Service provides support to find work for young people who are in education with additional support needs, those transitioning from education, and adults engaging with Social Care or Health Services. During the pandemic, job brokers worked hard to keep in touch with those furloughed and find new jobs for those who lost them.

Papworth Trust
Papworth Trust has improved the wellbeing of Work and Health Programme customers through specialist mental and physical health support. The trust has provided two 12-week programmes to 31 people who were most impacted due to the pandemic and were displaying low confidence, low motivation, increased anxiety, loneliness and isolation.

South Yorkshire Housing Association
South Yorkshire Housing Association (SYHA) is an award-winning, charitable housing association.
Its Good Work and Working Win employment services support people with health conditions to find, stay and thrive in work. Between July 2020 and June 2021, 1,450 people were supported to find new jobs, retain roles or return to work.

Steps To Work
This programme is designed to improve employment outcomes for people with physical and mental health conditions or disabilities, as well as those who are long-term unemployed, across Sandwell and Dudley.
Through a tailored approach to meet specific individual needs, the team has helped more than 200 people move into employment over the last 12 months.

The Action Group
Over the pandemic, the Action Group team supported more than 200 people with disabilities into work, to sustain work, or to progress in their current role, when jobs were ending and people were being furloughed in almost every industry. The team adapted to the new digital way of working, but also supported their clients to do the same.

Twining Enterprise’s Employment Specialist Team – Disability and Health
In extraordinary times and circumstances, Twining’s Employment Specialists (ES) have delivered phenomenal results for some of London’s most disadvantaged people with mental health problems.
During the pandemic, specialists switched to digital services and learned new ways of engaging clients and employers. They also focused on emotional and physical wellbeing support of clients in distress.

This award category is sponsored by Triangle Consulting
Triangle Consulting Social Enterprise is an innovative, mission-led organisation that exists to help people reach their highest potential and live meaningful and fulfilling lives, often in the context of social disadvantage, trauma, disability or illness.

Celebrate with the sector

Register for the ERSA Employability Awards – the winners announcement to be held online on 25 November at 2pm along with special messages from ministers and sector stakeholders. Please use our awards hashtag using #ERSAAwards21. 

The full list of the finalists across all categories can be found here and more on the awards here. 

Significant Achiever of the Year
Organisations delivering employability programmes can nominate exceptional jobseekers and learners they support.

The finalists:

Theo Thomas-Afonso
Nominated by Fedcap Employment
Theo Thomas-Afonso was unemployed for three years until he enrolled on the Work and Health Programme.
The 21-year-old has Cerebral Palsy, is in a wheelchair, wears hearing aids and only communicates digitally, which he believed was holding him back.
Determined to find work, he gained confidence and now has a new job he loves as an Administration Apprentice.

Jolene Thompson-Carney
Nominated by Offploy CIC
Jolene Thompson-Carney has faced many challenges – she became a drug user at the age of 11 and was later jailed for eight and a half years for a dealing offence.
But she has turned her life around, has a job as a line operative/labourer and is also encouraging others towards positive change.

Gabriel
Nominated by Recro Consulting
Gabriel had over five years’ teaching experience when he moved to the UK from Brazil in 2019. He worked in a factory for 10 months but lost the job due to Covid.
After a year of unemployment, Gabriel, who has autism, enrolled on a course which gave him the confidence to secure a dream job as a teaching assistant working with children with special needs.

Bethany Carroll
Nominated by Talent Finder
Bethany Carroll has been promoted to a full-time position at work from only four hours a week after gaining confidence from a career coaching scheme.
Bethany, who also cares for a young daughter, threw herself into the Kickstart scheme, impressing everyone and inspiring others to do the same.

Joshua Wareham
Nominated by Unity Works
Over the last year Joshua Wareham has mastered zoom interviews, managed his leisure time, looked for and found work, supported by a charity which helps people with learning disabilities.
Joshua, who has autism, now works at the London Eye and in his second week was given a staff award for his amazing customer service.

Samantha Cuffy
Nominated by Women’s Work Lab
Samantha Cuffy has made an inspirational journey back to work after 11 years’ unemployment as a single mum at home with two sons with additional needs.
She took part in a scheme supporting unemployed mums, which gave her the confidence and practical skills to win two incredible new roles.

This award category is sponsored by The Digital College, providing endorsed and accredited, vocational learning online to train individual learners and organisations.

Celebrate with the sector

Register for the ERSA Employability Awards – the winners announcement to be held online on 25 November at 2pm along with special messages from ministers and sector stakeholders. Please use our awards hashtag using #ERSAAwards21. 

The full list of the finalists across all categories can be found here and more on the awards here.