GQA Qualifications is lending its support to the ‘Nobody Left Behind’ initiative aimed at improving young people’s employment prospects for entry-level construction industry roles.
Nobody Left Behind works with groups of young people who have predominantly been social care service users, and gives support to try and steer them away from dropping into gang culture.
Following a 4-week programme of community sports training with household name sports stars, students move on to work towards gaining GQA’s Level 1 Award in Construction Health and Safety and the GQA green general construction site Labourer’s CSCS card, as well as H&S-related training such as manual handling and traffic marshalling, all accredited through GQA.
Civil Engineering Careers, the agency championing the work-related training then facilitates interviews with construction employers who look to offer employment opportunities to programme participants.
GQA technical officer, Phil Douglas, said: “I’m pleased to be working with the programme and its participants, helping them to benefit from GQA-accredited qualifications, CSCS cards and certificates.
“In addition, I’m happy to report that GQA and Building Our Skills – Making Fenestration, Glass and Glazing a Career of Choice have provided sponsorship support to help the programme get off the ground. We’ve donated towards a minibus that the initiative needs to help transport young people from further across the area, and we have been very pleased to be able to help in this small way. We have also been asked about development into other sectors in which we work.”
Barbara Travis, MD of CE Careers which heads up the initiative says: “I am so pleased to have established a relationship with GQA, who support the community initiatives and the education side through a range of accredited courses that help skill young people and give them the best chance of gaining employment.
“As we progress, we will be offering multi-sports including boxing, football, rugby, cycling and hiking. We are offering female-only sessions in boxing with the hope of encouraging more girls to look at construction as a potential career choice, and football camps for both boys and girls with ex Liverpool and England footballers. GQA are a key part of our growth, and a partner that we are immensely happy with as our awarding body.”
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