I run the Supported Internship programme at Peterborough Regional College.
We enable young people aged 16-24 with an Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP) to get into paid work.
Our programme provides a personalised study programme for our students. They will spend 1-2 days per week at college and 2-3 days per week based with an employer. They will be supported by a job coach in the workplace until they feel confident to work independently. Internships are unpaid and last for 6-12 months with the aim of progressing into a paid position.
We don’t have any entry requirements as to the level of learners that we take on. We would happily consider any student for the programme as long as they were aged 16-24 and had an Education, Health and Care Plan and were motivated towards working.
Thanks for your encouraging reply! So could these opportunities be open to an individual with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD)? They would need 1:1 support to enable access to college and the work setting (& the obvious fully accessible facilities). Are local schools informed about these opportunities? I have not been aware of them before reading your post!
Yes the guidance for supported internships states that anyone of any ability should be able to gain employment. Our task is to find the right job, provide the right support to them and to educate employers on adjustments that can be made in the workplace.
The programme itself is very new and we are working hard to try and get information out to schools and families. I did send letters to all of the special schools around Peterborough this year about the programme but I never heard anything back! It is definitely something we are trying to promote all the time though.
If you have any more questions please do not hesitate to ask me.
