Meet Our RT2 Partners – Training For Employment

We’ve recently launched a new programme for the people of York and North Yorkshire – have you heard? Following the success of our RISE programme, Rise2Thrive (R2T) is the new iteration, with new partners and a mission to support individuals at all stages of their employment journey to boot.

33 partners strong, we’ve collaborated with many of our R2T partner organisations before on various different programmes since our 2007 inception.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be introducing our new Rise2Thrive partners and diving into what they’re offering on the programme, starting with Training for Employment.

Training For Employment (TfE) are one of our ‘new’ partners – a Not-for-Profit Community Interest Company (CIC) providing ‘quality self-employment training and workshops to unemployed or disadvantaged residents of Yorkshire’.

One man band and Director/Co-Founder John McGaughran runs TfE. Having gone through a period of unemployment followed by a redundancy himself, John originally created TfE in 2011 with friend Geoff Letby, in the hope of supporting others across Selby, York, Leeds, & North Yorkshire towards self-employment.

TfE have a range of experience delivering business support, training, and running small enterprises, having also worked in tandem with Job Centre Plus, Citizens Advice and a host of other organisations to deliver Government funded schemes on running a business.

Not originally VCSE affiliated, the Voluntary Sector and CIC status came later, whilst the two were engaged in talks with York CVS about funding, and stumbled upon the idea of applying for grants – a way they could pivot away from sales-pitches and deliver their provision for free:

 

‘’Initially when Geoff and I started the business we were thinking about pushing the idea and the services we provided to local authorities and large companies who might be making people redundant. I suppose that was on our mind because we were just made redundant, but the idea of the grants and the voluntary sector changed everything, it flipped our business model completely (…) we never looked back.’’

 

Grants wise, this is where our relationship with TfE began.  Initially joining us as a partner on Community Grants, a European Social Fund Programme distributing £2,000,000 in small grants across Humber, York and North Yorkshire areas – we’re now delighted to welcome Training for Employment to our R2T partnership.

As an intervention partner, John will be delivering his ‘Zoom into Business’ course on the R2T programme, covering all aspects of starting your own business, from whether self-employment is the right thing for you, to planning, budgeting, marketing, social media, pricing, cashflow forecasting, legal matters, and taxes, (amongst other things).

There are a range of reasons self-employment can work better for some people than being an employee, and John cites all the usual reasons people decide to become self-employed – independence, creative freedom, being able to work around life/kids, being your own boss – as his own motivations.

From distilling business ideas to helping individuals turn creativity into cash, John is keen to support others who may not have had a positive experience of working for others pursue their own business ventures.

Asking John about his favourite part of the role, he says it’s all about witnessing the ‘’journey’’ participants go on:

‘’It’s seeing people who may not have much confidence initially – who may be intimidated by having their own business and thinking I want to do this but I’m scared – and guiding them through the process of how to do it. At the end of it, they’re confident and raring to go, and that’s really rewarding.’’

Starting a business can be a daunting process, and TfE can help alleviate some of the fear. For more information, or to refer a Rise2Thrive participant for business-focused intervention support, simply email John @ john@trainingforemploymentyorkshire.com or visit the TfE website here.

A huge thank you to John for speaking to the team!