Forth Valley College’s Project SEARCH initiative has won an internal recognition award from massive public services provider Serco – who give placements to the College’s Forth Valley Royal Hospital interns.
Every year Serco hold their annual Pulse Awards which recognise employees and teams that have impressively exemplified their corporate values of Trust, Care, Innovation and Pride.
And this year FVC’s Project SEARCH Team, have scooped a Divisional Award for Trust – to be presented on Wednesday 6 December.
The Project SEARCH - DFN Charitable Foundation - supports young people with learning difficulties to gain skills and experience, aimed at helping them move into sustainable employment and the first group of FVC interns (aged between 16-24) started at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in 2018 in Larbert, many of them working with Serco staff who provide the facility with various services.
This has proven to be so successful over the last five years, that a new partnership programme between FVC, The Stirling Highland Hotel and Stirling Council, has started this year (2023), helping eight interns to learn real job skills that will prepare them for work by rotating them through a variety of different work placement experiences.
A spokesperson for Serco, said: “This year the Team that support Project Search onsite were nominated under the value of Trust category. Every Serco employee who takes on a role of a buddy, volunteers to be part of the experience and have a huge part in the development of the Interns’ work skills, and social skills which allows them to eventually gain employment. Year on year staff choose to be part of this as they can see the change in confidence and skills from the start of the placement to the end.
“At Serco, we felt that this needed to be recognised due to the staff time and dedication. We are proud to say that the Project Search Team have won a Divisional Pulse Award for Trust - and this is open to up to 30,000 Serco UK employees - and will be collecting their award on Wednesday 6 December.”
Alan Ritchie, (pictured third from right in the main photo) Lecturer in the Department of Care, Sport, Business and Communities, who has been the main tutor for Project SEARCH since it started, said: “It is most satisfying to see our Serco colleagues at Forth Valley Royal Hospital, getting recognised for the excellent work that they are doing with our interns. They are helping to make a positive difference to each and every intern’s life. Well done and thank you.”
Jackie Innes, Operations Manager in the Department of Care, Sport, Business and Communities, said: “We are delighted that our Serco partners are being recognised by winning this award. Serco offer fantastic placement opportunities to our interns at FVRH. They treat the interns like an integral part of the team, and without the buddy system to support the interns, the programme would not be the success that it is.”
The DFN Charitable Foundation, is a UK registered charity established in 2014 by David Forbes Nixon, with the express aim of promoting programmes such these to support young people with learning difficulties to gain skills and experience aimed at helping them move into sustainable employment.
Main photo shows (from left to right) Lilian Young (Serco catering manager), Jean Allan (FVC Job Coach), David Paton (Serco/Project SEARCH business liaison), Alan Ritchie (FVC Lecturer), Claire Reekie (Serco Buddy), Jamie Anderson (Serco Buddy).
The other picture shows a few of the Serco ‘buddies’ (from left to right) Jay Anderson, David Little, David McCallum, Hamish Chorlington, Barry Shaw, and Natalie Thomson.
Anyone wishing to find out more on the course should contact FVC on 01324 403000.
