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Skills Centre celebrates winning prestigious Welfare to Work award

PCDT is celebrating after success at the recent 2010 Cornwall Works WISE Welfare to Work awards ceremony where the Skills Centre won the prestigious Welfare to Work (organisation) award, in recognition of the work of staff who have helped over 270 local people back into work and over 500 gain skills through training over the past two years using ESF funding.

The WISE awards are organised by the Convergence Partnership Office, Jobcentre Plus and the Skills Funding Agency to recognise and celebrate excellence in employment and skills activity across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

 
Members of the Skills Centre team proudly displaying their WISE award

The Skills Centre at PCDT through its ESF Convergence funded programmes provides participants with a range of support including one-to-one employment advice, personal and career development, and training packages to gain qualifications for work.

Sue Guard and Tracy Waters collect the Award        Photo courtesy of James Ram, Apex

The ceremony took place at the Headland Hotel, Newquay where the award was collected by Sue Guard, Chief Executive and Tracy Waters, Head of Employment, Training and Development at PCDT.  After the ceremony Tracy said “It’s fantastic to be recognised for the work that we do as an organisation, we are incredibly fortunate to have a team of staff who are supportive, knowledgeable and committed to making a difference for their clients.  We have been lucky to obtain contracts through Convergence that have allowed us to support our clients in a way that meets their needs and supports them back to work and we still have capacity to help other people in our local area.”

Photo courtesy of James Ram, Apex

PCDT has been helping the local community in Penzance for over 10 years and the range of services the organisation can now offer includes volunteering, complementary therapy and even counselling as well as employment and training.   Sue Guard believes that this diversity of provision is central to the success of the organisation, “When we help individuals we look much wider than their employment and training needs, so through other initiates within the organisation we can offer them access to services all under one roof. This holistic approach ensures that even clients with multiple and complex barriers to work are helped and is central to our clients not only gaining employment but sustaining it.”

Photo courtesy of James Ram, Apex