There's never been a better time to join the IEP

By Scott Parkin, IEP Chairman

We are living in a new world and now is the time for the sector to come together to collaborate and develop the confidence, resilience and practical skills of frontline staff. The IEP has been working hard to fulfil this mission and to communicate our aim for all employability staff to have a recognised set of skills and to be trained to provide the most effective support possible.

We’ve come a long way these past 12 months. Our organisation is growing, and we are working in partnership with many individuals and organisations to develop our profession and to strengthen and deliver our shared aims and objectives.

We’re investing in developing and sharing resources so that all frontline staff can have access to the broadest range of resources available, equipping them to support the widest range of customers with many different challenges. We have a number of projects underway with organisations such as Campbell Page, Kennedy Scott, Pluss, Prospects, Rehab Jobfit, Remploy, Royal British Legion Industries, Salvation Army, Seetec, Serco, Tomorrows People, Papworth Trust and Working Links who are all willing to share their best practice in the belief that this will have a positive impact on people’s lives. Examples are many but include: the NVQ level 3 in Employment Related Services; the IEP’s Induction Certificate for Employability Staff, which is being devised and developed by our Corporate Affiliate organisations; collaboration around the Apprenticeship Levy and the development of an employability apprenticeship and the delivery of a whole supply chain solution focusing on capacity building and knowledge transfer.

What the IEP offers the sector is the opportunity to provide real life development opportunities for staff that will help them deliver better services for customers and achieve better outcomes for contracts. We empower and develop people so that they are highly motivated, better trained and appropriately skilled to deliver great services. Staff deserve this level of engagement and so do the customers that they support, customers with ever increasing complex and support needs who often require more and more innovative solutions to drive more sustainable outcomes.

Being part of the IEP is very much a partnership, it’s about what we can do for each other. There are many benefits to be gained for the whole sector by working with us. It really does feel new, fresh and is already achieving some really great results at a time when we all need to move forward to meet the challenges ahead.