Amey Sheffield Streets Ahead work in partnership with Sheffield College to deliver the Supported Internship Programme for students with learning or physical disabilities. Since 2016, ten young people (aged 18 – 24) have enrolled on the Internship programme in a variety of roles in the offices, workshops and depot stores.

The interns are Sheffield College students and the Supported Internship Programme runs for a full college year. The Interns spend every morning in their job, afternoons are spent completing a personalised study programme which includes employability skills and the chance to study for relevant qualifications in English and Maths to an appropriate level.

An on-site job coach supports the interns and managers throughout the internship. The job coach works with managers to develop roles, ensuring a good match with the skills and abilities of each intern. They also help the intern learn the job, provide daily support to interns, and suggest reasonable adjustments.

Interns receive essential training throughout the programme: site induction, manual handling, health and safety. As part of the programme we designed a series of employability workshops, including customer services, interview skills, and mock interviews. The interns build up experience which they can use on their CV and allow them to demonstrate in a working environment that they have the skills and willingness to work.

Since the programme launched in 2016, four out of the ten interns have returned at Amey in an Apprenticeship. We now have apprentices in Grounds Maintenance, Customer Services, IT and Depot stores. The other six either returned to education or been supported to seek out other employment opportunities.

Two more interns will be joining Amey in November 2018.