Last year, Wirral Met College joined forces with three host employers to launch a supported internship programme. The success of this programme has been excellent; just one year on, Wirral Met students are benefiting by being in paid employment.
Supported internships provide students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities the opportunity to gain valuable work experience in various roles. They are designed to develop interns’ skills, in order to help them gain sustainable paid employment. Due to their great success last year, the programme has been expanded and the number of host employers has increased to seven this year, creating even more opportunities of employment.
Students on the internships spend three days per week in their work placement and one day per week at college, for one academic year and at the end of the programme, students will achieve a recognised ‘skills for employment’ qualification. Work on some of the placements has included administration, catering and retail duties.
The supported internship programme has been a great success, with some students securing permanent positions with their employers. Sarah Keeley joined Wirral Met on the Prep4Work course which allowed her to develop the work based skills she needed to achieve her main goal of working within a retail environment, and her long term goal of gaining paid employment. Sarah then progressed onto the Supported Internship Programme at Wirral Met and completed a placement at B&M in Liscard. The work placement has been of great benefit to Sarah’s development and confidence, leading to her securing paid employment with B&M.
Thousands of students choose to come to Wirral Met College to study and the college is proud of the support it gives to many of its students, including those on ‘Prep 4 Life’ courses. These courses offer young people (aged 16-24) with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, the opportunity to develop independence and work skills that will help them in adult life.
If you’re interested in finding out more about the supported internship programme or any of the Prep4Life courses click here or call 0151 551 7777. If you are an employer interested in supporting the programme, please get in touch via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
What’s on
- Our next open evening takes place on Thursday 12th January 2017 from 4.30pm-7.00pm; all campuses are open.