Perfect TEN as South Tyneside charity gets £48k cash boost

South Tyneside Training and Enterprise Network (TEN), a charity supporting young people in their efforts to get into work, has been awarded a fantastic £48,359 grant from the Virgin Money Foundation.

The new project ‘Base TEN’ will support young adults aged 16-25 who have barriers to employment and are not currently in education, employment or training.

The main focus is to enable young adults to make informed choices and decisions about their career and employment.

The funding has enabled TEN to appoint a Young Adult Services Co-ordinator and the organisation is now able to support 80 young people aged 16-25 who require advice and guidance to gain employment.

TEN Chief Executive, Hazel McCallion said “We are delighted that we have been awarded the grant from Virgin Money Foundation which will help us to expand services for young people in South Tyneside.

"There have been some great success stories with many young people gaining and staying in employment and we look forward to helping more young people in the Borough to achieve their employment goals and career ambitions”.

Jo Barnett, Executive Director of Virgin Money Foundation said “We were very impressed by South Tyneside TEN. It has a great track record of helping young people to find employment and we are pleased to be able to help them to continue to provide young people with the start they need.”

Base TEN will provide a range of services which will be flexible to the needs of each individual young person.

Support will be in the form of employment coaching and will be focussed on the young people becoming employment ready and securing employment. We will help young people identify skills and training needs, provide help with writing a CV, improve confidence and self-esteem and prepare for interview.

There will also be opportunities for the young people to gain experience of the workplace through volunteering and engagement with employers through work placements and industry tours visits.

Young people who are interested in getting involved in the scheme, can contact Stirling Hood, Young Adult Services Co-ordinator at TEN, on 427 2790 or email [email protected]