Latest News January 2018

                                                                                                                                                     

       

As the Organiser for Gateway 14-19 provision, I felt the start of 2018 would be an ideal opportunity to share the successes of our learners and our best working practices, within related areas of Redcar and Cleveland  Borough Council Services, our associated working partners and also with local business owners, who support us, by providing us with a diverse range of work experience and training opportunities for our learners.Many of the learners who attend Gateway have highly specialised learning needs , and the small classes offered by Gateway , provide an ideal teaching and learning space , for those learners who find mainstream options both daunting and challenging . Gateway , provides our students the opportunity to develop confidence and new employability skills , without the associated stresses of a large learning environment.

Gateway also provides a small cohort of 14-16 year old pupils,  with Alternative Provision at Secondary Level , offered on alternate days to the Study Programme. All Gateway staff cross teach across both GCSE and Post 16 platforms. Students on the Alternative Education Programme  follow a specialised curriculum of Maths and English. In 2018 we added  some new subject areas, Design and Technology, Art and Food Technology .

Our location in Skelton, essentially precludes many of our fellow RBC staff and colleagues , from visiting us, to see how we support, help and encourage, often the most vulnerable young learners, back into work, training or further education. The purpose of this this newsletter is to share Gateway's journey over the last 4 months. I also wanted to raise awareness of the benefits of  Gateway Services within Redcar and Cleveland  Borough , by increasing our visibility, within the organisation. Currently our learner numbers are up 100 % on last years enrollments, which is encouraging, looking at the future and going forwards into the next few months.

We went live with our social media streams in October of 2017 and have since created a strong digital footprint with 700 followers on Facebook and Twitter respectively.(Jan 18’ ) We have created a Blog site and Host site to further promote and engage with the local community. We also have a YouTube account which hosts our promotional clips for our websites.  We are active members of all the local discussion groups within Redcar and post regularly within these groups to promote our programmes with young learners. Many of our learners now communicate with us directly through Messenger and Face Book, around their learning needs. This month will see us take to the air-waves on Radio Zetland to talk about our programmes , and how they provide vulnerable learners with the skills needed to access further education options and training or work based skills and experience. Since September 2017, we have attended all the Careers evenings and Fairs within local Schools and Academies, with Gateway staff promoting the services and programmes available to Post 16 learners. We are now registered with the Government Gateway Portal and linked to all Universal Job search databases,  in Redcar. We have partnered with Virgin Health , who will be delivering parts of our curriculum,  related specifically to the pastoral and enrichment needs of our learners.

We have developed a number of online tracking systems as well as active ‘learning walls’, for learners to monitor and track their progress at Gateway. This has helped our learners with effective target and goal setting, with progression markers. Over the next few months our learners will be visiting a number of potential employers who will showcase a range of possible employment opportunities as well as further education providers. The Gateway Programmes are all about building those essential work skills that are a prerequisite , for most employers. We also develop Maths and English skills at various levels, so that our learners leave Gateway with improved Literacy and Numeracy Skills. These programmes have been revised to mirror the skills that will be needed in the world of work. Our recent Mock Interview Day , is an excellent example of where we created a retail job opportunity and our learners had to then compete for the position using a range of skills from research online to finally presenting to a panel and then ending with a 1:1 interview.

Currently we have learners placed in work environments all over Redcar Borough , completing their work experience and job training in retail, Customer Service , Maintenance , Horticulture , Animal Care and Joinery. This week saw Gateway  enrol a further 7 new learners who will be starting their programmes shortly. Below is a selection of Posts, showcasing our learners, who have achieved so much since September , who are often faced  with very challenging learning barriers to overcome. The staff at Gateway salute you in all your achievements to date.

Pierre Dingley
Gateway Organiser. 14-19.
Adult Learning and Skills.