Session 3 – 11th April – 15.45 – 16.35

Title of Presentation: Homeless people overcoming barriers to training and employment

Presenter: Harmit Kambo

Organisation: Off the Streets and Into Work

Summary:

Off the Streets and into Work’s particular focus is less on learning per se, rather than the barriers to learning, training, and employment that homeless people face. Broadly, OSW’s research relates to the two sub themes of ‘learning and social capital’ and ‘equality, diversity and access’.

The report is chiefly an account of research, with a wide range of good practice recommendations flowing from it. The good practice does not actually relate to teaching practices or learning theory. Rather, in the context of our work, good practice relates to systems, structures and procedures, particularly within the voluntary, Further Education and private sectors, which need to be in place to support/enable homeless people to move forward.

The research report focuses on:

• Why clients access training and employment services and the benefits clients received of attendance
• The barriers that prevent homeless people from accessing training and employment services
• Homeless people’s attitudes towards work
• The barriers to employment (e.g. the ‘benefits trap’, how the need for suitable accommodation acts as barrier)
• Employment during periods of homelessness (and touches upon some of the barriers to sustaining employment)
• Employers experiences and views about the employment of homeless people