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Education and training options

As part of our commitment to helping vendors move beyond selling the magazine we've developed our employment and training services. These are delivered by Big Life Employment and include:

• Vocational training - a chance for vendors to try different vocational training courses including health and safety, bricklaying and fork lift truck driving.
• Guidance and training on Job search, CV, Application Forms, Interview techniques.
• Access to IT suites in all our centres to ensure vendors can develop essential IT skills.
• Career advice and identification of career aspirations.
• Dedicated Information Advice and Guidance worker, who can be seen by appointment or on a drop in basis.
• Identification of in house training for vendors.
• ILM opportunities to move vendors into supported employment

All vendors complete three courses as part of the programme taught by tutors from Big Life Employment. The first, Learn to Earn, helps vendors to maximise their sales. It has to be completed in the first three months of selling The Big Issue in the North, and includes topics such as sales techniques, knowing your product, working safely and customer care. The course is taught via group work, sharing experiences among vendors, computer training, video presentations, role play, and assessment on the street by sales support workers.

Learn to Live develops knowledge and skills to allow homeless people to be more effective in their personal life and resettle into the community. It’s made up of two core units: Health & Housing and Communication & Citizenship. The course teaches vendors to claim their rights as citizens, about their responsibilities and practical skills like how to find accommodation, stress management and dealing with strangers.

Learn to Work helps vendors move into work, further education or training. It includes sessions on looking for jobs, interview techniques and work experience placements. All the Learn to courses are accredited with the Open College Network. The Big Issue in the North has forged links and partnerships with educational and training providers, so vendors can study for vocational, pre-vocational and academic qualifications. Each of The Big Issue in the North’s sites has an IT suite to ensure vendors have the chance to develop essential IT skills.

Poor literacy and numeracy requires intensive, one-to-one sessions in reading and writing. All vendors have a basic skills assessment, and develop Individual learning plans. The basic skills projects are a step away from the normal classroom environment – by trying to make them relevant to vendors’ lives. One project looks at vendors as consumers, teaching consumer confidence as well as basic skills. As vendors prepare to leave The Big Issue in the North support staff continue to work closely with them on an exit strategy. The Big Issue in the North wants all its vendors to have the chance of a decent future.

All vendors have access to all of The Big Life group’s training courses. Courses can be identified and recommended to the vendor where appropriate for example, stress management and a range of personal development , confidence and self-esteem building courses.

The Vendor Database logs the progress of all vendors and can be accessed at any time by staff and hopefully in the future by service users. Any service user should be able to access all their current details from any computer with Internet access and look at appointments and work completed. The database automatically produces vital research data.

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