The St@rt Programme is an initiative developed by Greatest Expectations Ltd which supports both communities; developing skills and opening real employment opportunities and business; access to a wage contribution scheme with no financial risk or outlay to employers.

The St@rt Programme for Business

Employer partnership is key to the St@rt Programme, as employers ‘sponsor’ a pre-employment course with an agreement to support learners by interviewing those who complete the course, and to possibly employing those that are successful, supported by a wage contribution scheme administered by Greatest Expectations.

The St@rt Programme will support business by contributing the equivalent of 16 hours at national minimum wage for up to ten weeks, that is potentially a £1500 wage contribution per employed learner. This represents a no risk solution for either short or long-term recruitment needs.

The 10 weeks can be a fixed term appointment with no commitment to carrying on employment afterwards however, all that we do ask is that they are considered for any future vacancies but again no guarantee that they would automatically be employed.

As part of the wider support for business, the St@rt Programme offers upskilling to currently employed members of your team including Team Leading and sector specific accredited qualifications.

The St@rt Programme for Unemployed

This is a six-week programme of accredited learning, generally Tuesday to Friday 9.30am to 3.30pm, based on sector skills e.g. Hospitality; Customer Service; Retail etc. included in this six-weeks is additional accredited training including upskilling of Math, English and IT.

If learners become employed, we will work with them further to gain in work-based qualifications usually we ask that they are released back to us on a Monday, either morning or afternoon, for 4 hours. This means they will be available for 12 hours in work and 4 hours upskilling (paid for 16 hours). Those that are not successful in securing one of the employed positions, will still work with Greatest Expectations to help support them into work.

The St@rt Programme Benefits

The St@rt Programme is very much a partnership between Greatest Expectations, employers and potential employees. As a registered charity Greatest Expectations is committed to supporting local communities break the workless cycle, providing real employment opportunities and most importantly support local business reduce its overheads with a wage contribution scheme. Local Support for Local People in Local Business.

If you would like to discuss the St@rt Programme further, please contact us on 01642 220777

The St@rt Programme © has been devised and developed by Greatest Expectations to offer excellent accredited qualifications and real paid work experience not only to embed learning but attain further work-based learning