It was a momentous day at R2W Community Works on Thursday 10 September – our first 2 learners from the project received their Open Awards Certificates for their hard graft. This was a big moment as the project only started a year ago -so great to see the first learners ‘roll off’ the production line!
R2W/Oaklea CEO Clive Wigley presented them both with their accolades along with CW Head Honcho Big Jim Green and his trusty sidekick, CW Apprentice, Sam Huck.
The Certificates for “Entry Level in skills for further learning & employment (Entry 3)”. Put simply – awards for cracking work in the property & garden maintenance sector!
R2W Employment Advisor Melissa Young has been supporting the learners on and off site and says once the Corona lockdown hit it presented extra challenges for everyone. Some of the assessment was suspended but that didn’t stop the CW team -who provided statements and examples of what had been achieved, goals reached etc:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkKq_WndOdU
It was also a proud moment for family members…so all in all recognition worth celebrating! (and something here at Community Works/R2W -we’re always ‘Open’ to!)
Some background to the Open Awards from Melissa:
“The award was an Entry Level 3 Certificate in ‘Introduction to Garden and Property Maintenance’. The course ran for one year from June 2019 – June 2020. The award comprised of these units;
- Developing Health and Safety Skills for Work
- Identifying PPE
- Using Construction Hand Tools
- Teamwork Skills
- Personal Action Planning
- Building and Construction.
To achieve these units, the learners had to do a combination of paper work in their folders and real, hands on work which they did with Community Works. The learners used skills they had already developed in The Furniture Warehouse and developed these further through one to one on the job coaching and support. Some of the skills they developed included using different hand tools safely, selecting appropriate tools and equipment for different jobs, acting professionally around members of the public and customers for whom they were completing works. Some of the work they did included building a summer house, developing gardens and outside play areas at local schools and nurseries, general household maintenance and helping to develop new office space and indoor play areas.
In order to evidence this work, we used a variety of videos, photos, the learners own work which they had completed in their folders and witness testimonies which was all submitted to Open Awards for moderation.”