Training Link Annual Review

April 2012 to March 2013

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Contents Chair’s Report 2 Director’s Report 3 – 5 Staff and tutors 6 – 7 Partnerships 7 Feedback from learners and volunteer 8 – 9 Photos 10 – 11 Aaron Rainieri: The Homeless World Cup: 12 Financial information 13 Learner survey and course statistics 14

Company Information Training Link Ltd 54-56 Phoenix Road, London NW1 1ES Charity Registration Number: 1051662 Limited Company: 3142188 Telephone: 020-7383-5405 Fax: 0871-971-2099 Email: director@traininglink.org.uk Website: www.traininglink.org.uk Auditors: Latham Lambourne, First Floor, East Wing, Priory Buildings, Church Hill, Orpington, Kent BR6 0HH

Adolfo Gaspar award We are pleased to announce that the joint winners of this award for 2012-13 are Angela Moorhouse, Nahida Chowdhury and Aida Mapili. The award is given, in memory of Adolfo, who was a management committee member and trustee of Training Link until he died in November 2008, to the learner who the IT tutors consider has made the most progress during the past year.

Funders We would like to thank the following organisations who funded us during 2012–13: The Big Lottery Fund, London Borough of Camden Community and Third Sector Equality and Cohesion Fund and the Goldsmith’s Company Charity. We would also like to thank Camden Adult Community Learning for their support.

Management Committee & Trustees Trustees: Brenda Goring Moore, Maya Alva (from July 2012), Elaine Arnold, Faize Yakup Bedirhan, Louisa Jean Baptiste. Management Committee: Brenda Goring-Moore (chair), Maya Alva (vice-chair), Kathleen Hayes (treasurer) Elizabeth Ajith, Ruth Allan (to November 2012), Yasin Alzuhdi, Emiflor Bahceci, Faye Barnes (from July 2012), Colin Flower, and Rosemary Maxwell. Cover photo: The Level 2 Business Administration course 2012–13, Nahida Chowdhury was absent when this photo was taken. (Photo: Simon Quach); Brenda Goring-Moore presenting a Listening Skills certificate; Jane Roberts from the BIG Lottery presenting the Adolfo Gaspar award at the 2012 AGM to Antoinette McMahon.

Photographs: Peter Lush Published by Training Link, 54-56 Phoenix Road London NW1 1ES Printed by Catford Print Centre, London SE6 2PN

The full accounts and Annual Report are available on request from Training Link, 54-56 Phoenix Road, London NW1 1ES.

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Chair’s Report Training Link has shown its maturity this year, in the way it has withstood the harshness of one of the worst economic downturns since the War. But I recall that Training Link – Women’s Training Link as was, was incubated and delivered in another tough economic climate – the 1980s. Indeed, the hardship suffered by a group of women in Camden brought them together to make a new life, not only for themselves and their families, but also for other women who could benefit from their work. As I review our year and look forward to the next, I am constantly struck by their courage and foresight. We would rather not be in such economically challenging circumstances, but we are as we are. And so throughout the year staff, volunteers, trustees and the management committee have remained determined to meet the challenge. 2012 saw the world welcomed in London with individuals and organisations renewing bonds of friendship and forging beneficial alliances through the Olympics. Training Link is proud to have played its part. We hosted recruitment sessions for local volunteers for the Games; and our office manager, Maria Trimikliniotis took time off work to be a London Olympic Volunteer. We updated our policies to ensure that the way we do business continues to meet good modern standards. We have always been passionate about equality and advocates for fairness. But that does not mean being complacent. So we continued to challenge our offer and delivery systems to be as open and inclusive as we can be. The quality of our work was recognised in our achievement of Level 1 under the PQASSO scheme. Thank you to all those involved from Training Link who helped with this; especially Angela Noonan, our PQASSO mentor. At Training Link we have been fortunate in our staff, freelance tutors and volunteers. I applaud them for the way they work with our clients, giving them renewed confidence, skills and hope for the future. I also want to acknowledge the work of our management committee who volunteer their time and expertise to lead challenge and support the organisation. I never forget that they have other calls on their valuable time. I was also pleased to represent Training Link in the consultation meetings and launch of Camden’s new Equalities strategy. This is an important development for the Council’s work, and one that we fully support. Last, but by no means least, I want to acknowledge the goodwill of our funders and donors who have maintained their support for our in these tough economic times. I particularly want to assure them that Training Link has and will continue to add value to the investment they make through us to Camden’s residents and beyond. And as for our clients and their families; most certainly I have been honoured to serve the organisation on your behalf this year, to have shared something of your journeys to achieving your goals, to celebrating you. Thank you for the gifts you bring – your potential for renewal and determination to succeed, many times borne out of harrowing challenges and experiences.

Brenda Goring Moore Management Committee and Trustees The Management Committee and Trustees met five times during the year. All the meetings were quorate.

We were sorry to lose Ruth Allan during the year, who resigned from the Committee; but were pleased to welcome Faye Barnes, who was elected at the 2012 AGM. Kathleen Hayes was elected as treasurer, and

Maya Alva moved to become Vice-Chair.

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Director’s Report The past year was a busy one for Training Link. Our principal activity has remained the provision

of training courses and education mainly for

people looking for work. There is an ongoing demand for our courses.

Our aims and objectives are summarised in our mission statement:

“To relieve poverty, advance education and

advance employment opportunities for black and ethnic minority and socially excluded people, by

facilitating access to training to enhance employment opportunities.”

Objectives

Our objectives for 2012–13 were to meet the targets for learners completing courses, to attract

new learners to the centre; to achieve the PQASSO Quality Mark; to recruit new members

for the Management Committee; to continue to

be involved in local community projects in Somers Town and to secure new funding to

ensure the future of Training Link.

Achievements

BIG Lottery courses

Our main funder now is the BIG Lottery. The

courses funded by the BIG Lottery are: Level 2 Business Administration

Level 2 Food Safety & Hygiene Certificate

Customer Care

Introduction to First Aid

Touch Typing

Listening Skills

One change we made after the first year of the

BIG Lottery funding was to introduce the Customer Care course, and reduce the number of

learners we would take on the Touch Typing course. This change was successful – the

Customer Care course was a good ‘partner’ for the Food Safety & Hygiene certificate, especially

for learners who wanted to work in retail or

catering. It also linked well with the Level 2 Business Administration course; and most of the

learners on that course also did Customer Care. The Level 2 Business Administration course,

provided through Open College Network (OCN),

is our most demanding course. Learners study six units: Understanding Business, Filing,

Punctuation and Grammar, Business Communication, Word and Excel. They attend for

1.5 days a week for two terms. Portfolios have to

be prepared for each module; marked and internally verified. Nine learners completed the

course; we originally enrolled 13 learners, but two dropped out through having to go abroad,

one had to complete ‘Work Programme’ courses

which clashed with the classes, and one found the course too tough and needs to develop his

English to a higher level. We changed the IT units from the first year, and this programme

worked better. The course was taught by Chris

Carr, Nelly Pineda and Peter Lush. The feedback from the learners was very

positive, and we also received positive feedback from the OCN external verifier.

The Food Safety & Hygiene courses provided by Virtual College continued to be much in

demand. Achieving the qualification can help

learners get work because it is a requirement to work in the industry. We have also had learners

who are studying health & social care, or want to work in the care industry who have done the

course. For 2013–14 we are arranging with

Working Men’s College for some of their health & social care students to do the course as a group.

The Introduction to First Aid course was popular particularly with learners who had not

worked for some time. Many had no academic achievements since leaving school, and

developing new skills gives them more

confidence. We ran three sessions in partnership with Single Homeless Project at one of their

hostels in King’s Cross, and these worked well. We discussed the touch typing course with

our BIG Lottery grants officer, and she said that

because the grant did not specify that learners had to do the ‘accredited’ British Computer

Society course, we could give learners a certificate if they completed one term, and these

would count towards the target. This meant we

could have more beginners on the course; and we now only enter learners for the BCS exam if

we feel they have a realistic chance of passing it. The Listening Skills course continues to be run

in partnership with the South Sudan Women’s Development Trust, at their premises in Abbey

Community Centre. Eight learners completed the

course, and Brenda Goring-Moore and I attended the last day of the course so that Brenda could

present the learners with their certificates.

London Borough of Camden courses

Our other main funder for courses is the London

Borough of Camden Community and Third Sector team. Their grant, under the Equalities and

Cohesion budget, covers: Introduction to Computers,

English as a Second or Other language (ESOL)

Adult Literacy project.

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The Introduction to Computers course is taught

by Nelly Pineda, with the support of volunteer

learning assistants. The course is aimed at beginners; people with no computer experience

or very limited computer experience. We find that some of the learners have problems or

issues in their lives, and at times leave the

course because they are unable to commit to it at the moment. This is frustrating, but we always

make it clear to people that even if they drop out, they are welcome back at Training Link in

the future. The aims of the course are very

simple: to make learners able to access the internet, and have an email address. We

encourage them to then progress onto other courses, such as Introduction to Word, or using

the internet, run by Camden Adult Community Learning at Training Link. We have received

positive feedback from the learners.

The part of the grant that covers ESOL provided for two courses. After discussion with

our outcomes and development officer, we decided to run courses at Entry 1 and Entry 2

Level 2 from September 2012 to July 2013. Both

classes were taught by Chris Carr. It is easier to recruit learners for an academic year, and by

running two courses, if a learner was too strong for Entry 1, they had the option of joining the

Entry 2 class. The Entry 2 class has been run at Richard Cobden learning Centre, and we would

like to thank the staff there and Camden Adult

Community Learning, who run the centre, for their support. The classes have been well

attended, and we should achieve the target for the number of learners to complete the project.

The Adult Literacy project has been run by us

since 2008. It is co-ordinated by Khadija Wolff, who had volunteer admin support from Anna-

Marie and then Antoinette Liswaniso. The project uses volunteer tutors to work with learners one-

to-one, meeting for around an hour each week.

We have a wide variety of learners, from people with very basic literacy needs to those who need

to improve their literacy to start a Level 1 or Level 2 course. The project is very demanding in

terms of its organisational requirements, and Khadija has worked very hard to keep it

functioning successfully.

Reading group

A new project which developed out of the literacy

project has been our reading group. The

Goldsmiths’ Company Charity gave us a grant starting in January 2013 to run for one year. The

project is aimed at people who can read, but don’t read books very much, and is run by a

volunteer. After a hesitant start it is now running smoothly.

Camden Adult Community Learning continues

to use the centre to run computer classes on a

Wednesday. We agree the programme with them, so that some of the courses offer a

progression route for our Introduction to Computers learners. The courses are very

popular, are well taught by Tracey Hamilton, and

are often overbooked. Our relationship with Camden ACL is stronger

than it has been in the past, and we now produce a joint leaflet for our Open Day and their

Information Days at Richard Cobden learning

Centre and Netley Learning Centre. They part-fund this work, and this means that our leaflets

reach a wider area than in the past. We have also had joint adverts in the Camden New

Journal, and do a mail-out for each open day to at least 100 employment advisers, key workers

and local groups in Camden and Islington.

Nelly Pineda continues to support a small number of learners who study for the European

Computer Driving Licence (ECDL). Despite the name, this covers the main Microsoft courses,

and is a widely recognised IT qualification. We

have also had one learner who did ECDL Advanced, which is the first time we have offered

that course. We do not receive funding for ECDL, so rely on learners either self-funding, or being

funded by their employer. A new area of work that we have developed

in the past year has been offering some training

for local tenants and residents associations (TRAs) on behalf of the Council. This does relate

to our overall work of helping people develop new skills and self-confidence, and also brings in

a small amount of income.

Many of the learners who attended our courses were coming to Training Link for the first

time. We welcomed referrals from local groups and projects, in particular Single Homeless

Project and Arlington House.

My thanks as well to Steve McCarthy and Franco Gioacchini for their leafleting for the Open

days which helps recruit a lot of our learners; and to Franco for keeping the building clean.

PQASSO

Although much of the work was done in 2011-12, the actual assessment day for PQASSO was in

April 2012. The assessor came for a day, having already examined documents and policies sent to

her in advance. She interviewed Brenda and

Maya, Nelly and Maria, a volunteer and a learner, and me. It was all a bit nerve-wracking, but at

the end of the day, she told Brenda and me that we had passed! Many thanks to our PQASSO

mentor, Angela Noonan, for all her support.

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Local activity

Somers Town is one of the most deprived areas in central London, but it is also one of the most

active in terms of community projects. We have been represented on the steering group for the

Living Centre, which is a community gain under

Section 106 planning requirements from the Francis Crick Institute, which is currently being

built. I attend the meetings regularly on behalf of Training Link.

The local Neighbourhood Forum is also very

active, and I attend the sub-committee that deals with Business, Education, Employment and

Training. This has also been productive, and could lead to new funding in the future. Working

together in various forums has also strengthened our relationship with Somers Town Community

Centre and the New Horizon Youth Centre.

We were also very pleased to welcome Councillor Tulip Siddiq on a short visit to Training

Link in January. She is the lead Councillor for the Voluntary and Community Sector in Camden and

is a Cabinet member. She met me and two

learners, Faye Barnes (who is also on the MC) and Rafia Begum, and seemed very impressed.

Management Committee

The Management Committee and trustees have

continued to meet every two months, and all the

meetings have been quorate. We welcomed one new member, Faye Barnes, onto the MC at the

AGM in July. There was also a change in the officer positions, with Kathleen Hayes becoming

the treasurer and Maya Alva taking the post of

vice-chair. We are aiming to recruit at least one new member over the next year. Thanks to the

entire MC, especially Brenda, for their support.

Staff

I am pleased to say that the staff team has

remained unchanged over the past year. Maria has taken responsibility for co-ordinating our

work on the online courses, and has organised those very well, as well as developing our

administration and network of contacts. Nelly has

continued to run computer courses with great commitment, patience and enthusiasm. Our

thanks to Franco for keeping the office clean. Our freelance tutors, Chris Carr and Khadija

Wolff, both show great commitment to their

work, which is very demanding.

Volunteers

Sadly, Emi Bahceci decided in September to cut back on her volunteering with us due to other

commitments, and her daughter Mimi’s ever-

increasing homework. She is still a Management

Committee member, and I would like to thank her for all the work she did for Training Link as

an administration volunteer. Nahida Chowdhury, who was one of our Business Administration

learners this year, has been doing some

volunteering to gain experience, mainly filing, which has been very helpful. As learning

assistants for our Free Internet Café and drop in and IT classes, Aminul Islam, Siobhan Keane and

Unisa Kamara have been very helpful.

Partners

Partners are very important for our work. We

have secured funding from the Lloyds TSB Foundation to run a Get into Catering project,

and will be working with West Euston Partnership

and Somers Town Community Centre. We also worked with Age UK Camden and various other

groups on a bid for the Camden 50+ Funding. As outlined above, there are many organisations

who send learners to us, and receive our

publicity. In these tough times, working with different organisations is very important, and we

look forward to continuing this in the future.

The building

We have continued to keep our building in good

condition, and are in the process of negotiating a new lease with Camden. We took on a new

monthly mobile phone contract during the year, which will halve the bills on our landline. We also

switched to a ‘dual-fuel’ deal which will mean

that our fuel costs are stable for three years. We do quarterly health & safety inspections, and

have two qualified first aiders in the staff team.

Fundraising

We received some extra income this year from a

local group who used our building for meetings. We also raised some funds by selling second

hand books, a calendar, and through the ‘easy-fundraising’ website. We hope to develop these

areas of activity in the future.

Finally, I would like to thanks everyone who has

supported Training Link’s work over the past year. There is an ever-increasing need for our

services, and it is a challenge for us to both run

our current courses, and develop new areas of work. But with thousands of people out of work,

many lacking qualifications, in our part of London, it is essential that we do so.

Peter Lush

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Staff and tutors

ESOL & Literacy tutor

I’ve been at Training Link for around six years now and already another year has passed! I

teach English at the centre. This year I did the English units on the Business Administration

course and ESOL Entry 1 and Entry 2 courses.

The Entry 2 course was run at Richard Cobden Learning Centre; thanks to all the staff there for

their support. Training Link has helped me progress onto

other work, including teaching ESOL at Netley

Learning Centre, and also work at a summer language school. I think the courses went well

and I hope the learners have managed to move onto other things. It’s great that places like

Training Link exist, providing free education for adults in the local community, and despite

government cuts manages to survive!

Chris Carr

IT Co-ordinator

We ran the Business Administration course for

the second year, which gave us the opportunity to improve it from the year before. We changed

the modules the learners did to Word Processing Level 2 and Spreadsheets Level 1. We were

pleased that most learners both finished their portfolio on time, and at a high standard.

The 98 per cent accuracy required for passing

the Touch Typing course continues to be a challenge, but learners seemed determined to

get there. We also give all learners who complete a term of the typing course a certificate, which

recognises their work.

This year, for the Introduction to Computers, we have had quite a number of volunteers,

mostly well qualified in IT, who contributed to our learners getting more attention and speeding

up their learning process. Learners find it

important to attend the drop in sessions either to do their homework or just practice what they

have learnt. And obviously we are pleased to see them more than once a week!

We have introduced the ECDL Advanced, which despite some teething problems, has been a

welcome challenge.

I can say that has been an enjoyable and rewarding year and we are looking forward to

the certificate giving event for the Business Administration course at the AGM.

Nelly Pineda

Office Manager

It was another good year at Training Link. I

started off the year with the good luck of winning

a £250 donation for Training Link from Lloyds TSB. This money has gone into two of our

budgets for funding applications, both of which

have been successful: the Reading Group and Get into Catering; the last of which, I look

forward to coordinating. I've also helped broaden our reach by

initiating some collaborative work with Working Men's College. Here, to our mutual benefit, we

will run the online Food Safety & Hygiene course

for learners about to start looking for work in the health sector.

Maria Trimikliniotis

Adult Literacy Project Co-ordinator

The Adult Literacy Project has now been running

successfully for five years. This unique service is now more in demand than ever. And the

achievements by learners and volunteer tutors

are a testament to its success. This project serves adults who, for the most

part, speak English well but whose reading and writing are not as good and hold them back from

reaching their goals. Clients come to us when they need to improve their English reading,

writing and spelling skills to do a task, find a job

pursue a training opportunity or a new vocation. Our volunteers come from different

backgrounds and offer diverse skills and expertise. It’s a real labour of love and the

learner benefits from this unique one to one

experience. This Literacy support is constantly developing,

changing and improving. This year it has evolved to include two group learning opportunities, led

by one of our more experienced volunteer tutors, Lourdes Pareja. A reading group began last term

and English for the Driving Test started after

some learners requested our help. Clients are referred from projects like Camden

Aftercare, several employment services, as well as various other community support services. We

hope this project at Training Link can continue to

serve individuals in the community and also in partnership with Camden’s various community

services.

Khadija Wolff

Camden Adult Community Learning Tutor

I teach in five community centres for ACL, including Training Link. I teach at Training Link

all day on Wednesdays, usually three courses each term. We have had a good year with the

Wednesday computer courses at Training

Link. The courses are all very well attended with

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learners aged from 17 to 70 years old. We ran

a new course, ‘Create your first website’, which

was enjoyable to teach because a wide variety of interesting websites were created by learners.

One learner who is an actor created a website for her profile and acting training services; another

learner needed one for his tenants association,

and one was created about good nutrition.

‘Digital cameras and image editing’ was

another new course that went down very well. It

was also fun to teach. As always it has been a

pleasure to work for Training Link. I always feel supported, and the staff are very friendly; I can

always go and speak to them with ease if any issues arise.

Tracey Hamilton

Partnerships

Working with SRF

SRF would like to congratulate Training Link on another successful year in obtaining funding to carry out

some new projects. The Training Link reports are always pleasurable reading and Peter and the staff seem

to be able to fit so much in the time available for work. The trustees and management committee of SRF were grateful for the continued support which Training

Link has given through the year in circulating information for seminars and for its annual Conference. We were particularly pleased that Peter, Brenda, Rosemary and Faye were able to attend our annual conference

in November, the theme of which was “Domestic Violence and its Impact of Family Life”.

Peter kindly volunteered to run the bookstall at which the report, in book form, of the previous conference, Parents and Children in Prison, Attachment, separation and loss was launched. The cover design

by Stephen McCarthy and the layout of the book combined to make a very attractive publication for sale at an affordable price of £7.50. Peter has been extremely helpful in the marketing of the book, and SRF

acknowledges with thanks all the work and personal time which he has devoted to this new venture. Dr Elaine Arnold Director Separation and Reunion Forum (SRF) Local partnerships Age UK Camden Arlington House (One Housing Group) Camden Adult Community Learning DISC Francis Crick Institute Living Centre Steering Group

Hopscotch Asian Women’s Centre London Borough of Camden (Voluntary & Community Sector and Resident Engagement team) New Horizon Youth Centre Origin Housing Group Richard Cobden Learning Centre Single Homeless Project Somers Town Community Centre Somers Town Neighbourhood Forum Business, Education, Employment & Training Group South Sudan Women’s Skills Development Surma Centre University College London Union Voluntary Action Camden Volunteer Centre Camden Walker House TRA West Euston Partnership Working Men’s College

National partnerships

BIG Lottery British Computer Society Charity Evaluation Services London Training & Employment Network NOCN OCN London Region Separation & Reunion Forum St Giles Trust St Mungo’s UK Online Virtual College

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Feedback

From volunteers on the Adult Literacy project

“I volunteer on a one-to-one basis with a Literacy learner. Right from the beginning she has been very keen to learn how to read and write. From a very basic knowledge of the alphabet with hardly any reading skills, I

am happy to say that she is developing into a confident reader. Besides books, it’s wonderful to see her so

eager to read newspapers and magazines, items she would never have picked up in the past. And most importantly for her, she can now read to her young children.

However, as a person whose mother tongue is foreign and who gets by at a basic level in English, she encounters many challenges with her reading that the native English speaking learner would never have to

deal with. We come across many words when reading that are not part of her vocabulary that have to be explained. This tends to slow down the learning process. Furthermore, understanding the strange figures of

speech that we use so frequently is an added difficulty, for example phrases like ‘she gets by’, ‘he is behind

bars now’, ‘at the drop of a hat’ and ‘cold shoulder’ can be a huge puzzle, but at the same time funny and enjoyable for her.”

Kathleen

“I've only been volunteering since the end of last year, so far I can only say (with faith) she is reading the news each day, and getting to grips with topical vocabulary.”

Wessie

“Parvin has focused on improving her basic sentence structure, expanding her vocabulary and improving her spelling. Initially she only wrote using simple sentences, but has now progressed to using compound

sentences. We meet every week in her local library and have begun to use the library computer. We have

used the BBC Skillswise site, which has a variety of fun activities for learning English. Parvin has particularly enjoyed using the computer and it allows her to improve her computer skills as well as her literacy skills. It

has also been a method of showing Parvin that learning can be fun.” Lesley

“Although it has been some time since I worked with Tsega, we see each other fairly regularly. She is now a

foster mother to a baby boy (in addition to her own four girls, two of whom still live at home) and she is doing a great job! I know that she would not have been able to progress onto fostering without the English

language preparation that Training Link provided, as well as with my support as a volunteer. Tsega has

always been determined to learn English to get a job in a childcare related field, and now her studying has paid off! You may also remember that I helped her to find a voluntary teacher's assistant position at a local

state school nursery about a year ago, which helped to build her English language skills and gave her excellent childcare experience.”

Sarah

“In the past three months my learner has improved his grammar skills, particularly in writing. He told me,

from the start, about his commitment to improve his knowledge of the language for making some changes in his life. I know he left a part time job he had during the week for another part time one but at weekends

only. That was, he told me, to enable him attend a regular ESOL English Course starting from this January. He's also happy to have improved his grammar skills in sending messages.”

Vittorio

“So far we have had four sessions. Our main achievements are Syeda's improvement in spelling and reading rules awareness and her ICT skills. We have made reading easier by learning to break long words into parts

(syllables) rather than guessing what they are and what they mean. We have had spelling dictations to

improve her skills (e.g. the difference between words like 'bit' and 'bite'). We have been doing reading comprehension tests online to make it easier for Syeda to use the computer. I also sent her a couple of e-

mails to improve her e-mail skills. Both literacy and ICT are important for her because she hopes to find a job at a hospital reception.”

Olga

Volunteering at Training Link for me is a wonderfully rewarding way of putting something back into the community. The literacy programme which teaches people how to read and write English is a much needed

facility in Camden. Also, being free to the learners and without the normal off-putting bureaucracy of the

larger institutions it has a happy and informal atmosphere which puts people instantly at ease. Colin

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From the Business Administration course learners

“The staff have always been very supportive, made learning a great experience. I’ve learned some new skills and gained some new friends.”

“I got my confidence back.”

“I gained the confidence to start my own business. I learnt how to write letters of complaint, which am very

pleased about. The group was friendly and atmosphere was good. It was always welcoming for others to come in. It was good, old-fashioned one-to-one teaching.”

“Friendly, flexible, fun.”

“Thank you for all your help and patience. It was a great year for me and I could not ask for better teachers.”

“Thank you all for teaching us. It was a wonderful course.”

“A big thank you to all the teaching staff for all the support. I’ve acquired so many new skills.”

“I learnt a lot.”

From learners on the Listening Skills course

“Everybody participated in the lessons – more knowledge about different countries and culture”

“The group was very good at shaping our ideas and discussion. I really liked all the sessions and enjoyed it.”

“I learnt a lot from attending the group and from the group members.”

“The group is very good at understanding and communicating with others; very friendly and caring.”

From learners on the Introduction to Computers course

“I am writing regarding the drop in centre [Training Link]. I have found it extremely helpful; the staff are friendly and very helpful in a relaxed environment. I have learnt a great deal about computers in the last few

months both in IT and typing amongst other skills. I have become more confident and am using the internet

and learning to use different websites.” This learner lives in a hostel and has ongoing health problems. He also attends our weekly 'open' sessions; and his hostel have now part-funded a lap-top for him. This has

increased his self-confidence.

“I was a beginner and I learnt quite a lot; it was the first time I had done a course. It is important to be able to use the internet; it was the right level for me and now I am thinking about what other courses to do.”

From a former learner

“I am writing to say many thanks for your help to me to get a job which I really wanted. Thanks a lot for giving me a nice reference. I have been a student at Training Link. I studied English as a second Language

(ESOL) and Literacy Level 1 and the Food Safety & Hygiene certificate (Level 2) with you. Many thanks, I

hope you found me to be a reliable and hardworking student. I went to Training Link and I improved my English speaking and writing skills, which really helped me get full

time work as a nursery nurse since November 2012. I am happy to get a job. I also improved my computer skills there. I found that Training Link’s staff were friendly, supportive and made a good atmosphere. I was

very pleased to be there all the time and I always appreciated the team who work with you. So I feel grateful to you and your colleagues.

Thanks a lot to Chris; I am grateful to him for correcting my understanding and writing. He is a good English

teacher and I got Level 1 certificates from Training Link. When we studied in the evening, he always encouraged us to learn a lot. There is a good team. My best wishes for you and your team for health and

happiness.” Navruz Duman

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The Listening Skills group with their certificates, July 2012. The certificates had been presented on behalf of Training Link by Brenda Goring Moore, who is on the right in the picture.

Camden Adult Community Learning Save Time – Go Online class, December 2012.

Members and visitors at the 2012 Annual General Meeting.

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Tracey Hamilton presents Angela Moorhouse with her BCS Level 1 Touch Typing certificate.

Monica Wilson, who works as a Vocational Guidance Worker at St Mungo’s. She works closely with Training Link to find courses for her clients, and also studies with us herself. St Mungo’s supported her to study ECDL at Training Link.

Learners studying for the Food Safety & Hygiene certificate online, one of our most popular courses.

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Aaron Rainieri: The Homeless World Cup

In October 2012 England played in a World Cup, and Arsenal and other Premiership clubs played a major

part in developing the England players. England were represented by Men’s and Women’s teams. The Men’s team finished 22nd overall in the tournament, beat France and Germany, and lost a couple of matches in

penalty shoot-outs – nothing new there then. The Women’s team finished ninth in their tournament. The tournament attracted virtually no media coverage, but was vitally important to the players involved.

It was the annual Homeless World Cup, and was played in Mexico City. For England’s goalkeeper, Aaron

Rainieri, it was particularly significant because he was born in Mexico: “It was the first time I’d been back there, and I was quite emotional. I was adopted when I was young and raised in South Wales. When we

met the Welsh team at Heathrow to fly out, they said I should be playing for them.” The matches are played four-a-side on a small pitch. The England squad had eight players, and Aaron

was the only goalkeeper. He is currently living in a hostel in Camden Town in north London, and has support from Single Homeless

Project (SHP), one of the largest agencies in London working with homeless people. Aaron recalls: “SHP

suggested I fill in an application form and I was invited to a five week training programme at Arsenal, organised by Arsenal in the Community. We went once a week, and had workshops in the morning, and

football in the afternoon. The workshops are about building self-confidence, goal-setting and helping us progress. The coaches and teachers were from Arsenal, and the coaching was very good.” Aaron had initially

been an outfield player, but on the last day played in goal, which he had been his position as a youngster.

He conceded the least goals and was invited to the final trials as a goalkeeper. Thirty players had been invited to Arsenal, and 10, including Aaron, were invited to go to a day at

Manchester United for the trials for the England team. There were similar events staged by Everton, West Bromwich Albion and Manchester United. “We played in different teams and in a tournament. We played at

the Manchester United training ground and had a tour of Old Trafford. It was brilliant. The next day I got a phone call saying that I would be England’s goalkeeper in the 2012 Homeless World Cup. We met up at

Wembley, had a tour of the stadium, then in the changing rooms our kit was there with our names on it.

Then we had photos taken.” In Mexico, as well as playing football, the players were taken on outings. Aaron found the Aztec Pyramids

“amazing”, has made friends there and hopes to return. The matches were seven minutes each way. After the group matches, the teams are split into different

tournaments for the Trophy stage. England were in the Mexico City Cup, and finished sixth, after losing to

Czechoslovakia on penalties and being beaten 9-3 by Scotland. However, Aaron says that “The Mexican teams had been together for 10 months. We were based all over the country and could not get together for

training. Also, it was hard to acclimatise, even in goal I found breathing hard.” The players were treated like professional international footballers. Aaron says that there were big

crowds watching the matches, and the anthems were played before the first and last matches. “People

made us feel like superstars, taking pictures and asking us for autographs and to sign tee-shirts. But I’m just a normal guy. Seeing children on the streets in Mexico City made me realise, despite my problems, that I’ve

been lucky compared to the children there.” Aaron played football as a youngster, and had trials at professional clubs, but “I wasn’t tall enough” to

make it. He joined the Army, but after leaving the Army his mother died and he became an alcoholic. “I got in with the wrong crowd and got into trouble.” Coming to London “has seen me change my ways, and I’ve

turned my life around. Now I’ve got my self-belief back.”

Aaron has benefitted from the programmes he has done with SHP and Training Link. In December 2012 he got a job in retail; has now joined a local football team, and hopes to become involved in coaching and

refereeing. He believes that passing on his experiences can be useful for younger people, so they can avoid the mistakes he made. He’s now looking for someone to give him a chance, and build on his time as an

England goalkeeper.

Peter Lush

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Financial information

This was another challenging financial year for Training Link. Our main funder is the BIG Lottery Fund; and their five year grant, which lasts until 2016, is crucial to our survival. We also receive funding from the

London Borough of Camden, through their Voluntary and Community Sector Equality and Cohesion grants. This grant runs until December 2012, but may be extended for a further calendar year. Camden also

supports us through not charging us any rent for use of the building. This was a major change for us,

introduced in January 2012. It righted an anomaly that saw community centres in Camden buildings being rent-free, while voluntary and community groups like us, serving the same client group, paid a full

commercial rent. We do, however, now have to pay 20 per cent of the Business Rates. Camden Adult Community Learning

also supports us through paying the costs of the maintenance and internet connection for the IT suite. We

also received £1,000 from the Goldsmiths Company Charity to run a Reading Group, which is a new activity for us. This grant is split over two financial years.

We did manage to increase our funding from other sources this year. A local group paid to use a room for their committee meetings; we did fundraising through easyfundraising.org.uk and through the MyDonate

site on our website. We also sold second hand books, and a calendar. And many thanks to Maria

Trimikliniotis for nominating us to receive £250 she won from Lloyds TSB to give to a charity of her choice. On the expenditure side, our biggest costs were the staff team, and then our freelance tutors. We made

some savings through purchasing a mobile phone for staff to make class to mobile phone numbers; which is considerably cheaper than using the landline. We also negotiated a three year fixed ‘dual-fuel’ deal for our

gas and electricity to protect us from future tariff increases. Our building is quite difficult to heat and does not get much sunlight, which means we use the lights a lot, which all adds to the expense.

One saving this year was to stop using our freelance finance worker. We were always happy with the

quality of his work, but his fees were one of the few areas in our budget which offered any flexibility; and the work has now been taken over by the director.

A finance report is given to each management committee meeting every 2 months, and circulated to trustees. The director meets with the treasurer regularly to discuss the finances.

The full accounts are available on request from Training Link, 54-56 Phoenix Road, London NW1 1ES.

Income (Main areas)

Big Lottery Fund £47,656

LB Camden Community & Third Sector (C&E) £12,738 Goldsmiths Company Charity £1,000

General £3,771

Total income: £65,165

Expenditure (Main areas)

Staff costs £36,214 Teaching £19,407 Advertising £2,746 Cleaning £1,574 Light and heat £1,495 Rates £1,305 Subscriptions £1,163 Postage and stationery £1,087 Repairs £713 Exam fees £691 Insurance £626 Telephone £582 Computer expenses £526 Sundries £323 Volunteers costs £291 Sundry £242 Water Rates £190 Total expenditure: £69,274

14

Training Link learner survey

We conducted a survey of learners in the spring of 2013. We got 19 responses, which is not very

representative, but is an interesting sample of

our learners. Thanks to Liliane Arame Prentice, one of our volunteers, for devising and

conducting the survey on our behalf.

What course(s) did you complete at Training Link?

Adult Literacy 2 Business Administration 1

Citizenship 1

Computer Courses 5 Customer Care 6

ESOL 1 Food Safety & Hygiene 6

Introduction to Computers 1

Introduction to First Aid 8 Reading Group 1

Touch Typing 7

After completing course(s) at Training Link, what did you do next? Seek employment 14 Enrol in more training 3

Volunteering 6

Start a small business 1 None of the above 2

If you sought employment after the Training Link course(s) were you successful in finding a job? Yes 12

No 3

Have you engaged in another type of training or learning since the Training Link course(s)? Yes 11

No 7

What did you do? Bee keeping 1

Business administration 1 Customer service 1

Degree in computer science 1 Digital photography 1

ECDL 1

Equality and diversity 1 ESOL Level One 2

Hospitality 1 Parenting 1

PowerPoint 1 Touch typing 1

If you were successful in looking for a job, what type of job did you get? Café manager 1 Call centre 1

Chef 2 Dinner lady 1

IT Administrator 1 Nursery Nurse 1

Retail Assistant (food) 1

Software engineer 1 Teaching assistant 2

Did your course(s) at Training Link help you to achieve the next career goal? Yes 12

No 2

Uncertain 4

Have you continued to utilise the training you received at the Training Link course(s)? Yes 9 No 4

Occasionally 3

Do you feel confident when using the skills related to the training which you received at Training Link? Yes 12 No 1

Somewhat confident 4

Overall, were you satisfied with your training or learning gained from the Training Link course(s)? Yes 16 No 0

Somewhat satisfied 2

Course statistics

Big Lottery Fund courses Business Administration 9 learners Food Safety & Hygiene 48 learners

Introduction to First Aid 48 learners Customer care 30 learners

Listening Skills 8 learners

Touch Typing 13 learners

LB Camden Community & Third Sector Cohesion & Equality courses Adult Literacy 20 learners ESOL Entry 1 12 learners

ESOL Entry 2 10 learners

Introduction to Computers 19 learners

Camden ACL courses Word (3 courses) 25 learners

Digital Cameras & Image editing 11 learners

Spreadsheets 9 learners

Save time go online 5 learners

Create your first website 9 learners

PowerPoint 11 learners

Goldsmiths Company charity Reading Group 8 learners

15

Training Link was founded in 1985 as Women’s Training Link. Twenty eight years on, we are still working to fulfil our mission statement:

“To relieve poverty, advance education and advance

employment opportunities for black and ethnic minority and socially excluded people, by facilitating access to training

to enhance employment opportunities.”

You can support our work by: Becoming a volunteer on one of our projects – contact us via our

website. Making a donation – see our website for access to the MyDonate

facility. Supporting us when you shop on line, by registering to support Training

Link with www.easyfundraising.org.uk

www.traininglink.org.uk