Project Choice
This is the second year; Newcastle Soroptimists have been involved with Project Choice at Gateshead College. Our fellow Soroptimists from Sunderland work with the Sunderland cohort of students.
Project Choice is a supported internship programme for people with learning disabilities, difficulties or autism (LDDA). Led by Gateshead College, internships take place in City Hospitals Sunderland, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS FT, York NHS FT, Tees Esk and Wear Valley NHS FT. The focus is ‘work readiness’ and matching skills to employment.
Soroptimists give the students interview experience. We participate in mock interviews three times in the academic year: October, March and in June. The aim is for each team of interviewers to see the same group of students each time and this enables us to give relevant feedback on their progression. Our work has been much appreciated by the course leaders. Next academic year, we are hoping to expand our support for this project to include students from the Newcastle group of students.