As another academic year closes here at Nuneaton Signs, we’re pleased to announce that a further 3 supported interns have joined the Nuneaton Signs group in paid employment.
This takes our success rate in the programme, supporting young people with an EHCP (Education, health and care plan) into finding meaningful paid employment to 75%. 81% of the students who have participated in a supported internship at Nuneaton Signs are in paid employment, volunteering, and 94% are in paid employment, volunteering, or being supported by a third-party service to find paid employment.
The Children’s Commissioner commented “Statistics show that young people with SEN are significantly less likely to be in work and, on average, have much lower earnings 15 years after Key Stage 4. One thing that has been shown to help the employment outcomes for young people with learning disabilities is supported internships. These are structured, work-based study programmes for 16 to 24-year-olds who have an EHC plan.”
As we begin to see more students than ever before in education with an EHCP, it has become more important than ever for businesses to find a way to support education leavers to find meaningful paid employment. In the academic year 2023/24, 434,354 pupils in England had an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), according to the House of Lords Library. This represents a 4.8% increase from the previous year.
Our internship programme at Nuneaton Signs with North Warwickshire South Leicester College has been a roaring success since we first started in 2021. We have seen cases where young people start the programme unable to speak or make eye contact, and by the end of the year are making presentations to groups. The confidence that our students gain throughout this programme is invaluable, and is a major contributing factor to the fantastic outcomes that we have achieved in this programme.
“The success of our Supported Interns would not be possible without the support of our team members at Nuneaton Signs. I will never forget the first time we asked employees to come forward as volunteers to be mentors and buddies for our first year of interns, we had so many we couldn’t fit them all in the boardroom! It really is a team effort that makes the internships work so well year on year, and that is something that I am very proud of our team for achieving.”
Chris Wilcox – Managing Director, Nuneaton Signs.
