We recently heard from Ruth Martin, work placement coordinator at The Hive College, about how Match My Project has been helping her source opportunities for young people with disabilities in Birmingham.

I’m Ruth, I’m from The Hive College. We are an outstanding, according to Ofsted (and ourselves), college in Erdington North Birmingham. We offer courses for young people with disabilities, and that’s right across the spectrum. So we have some very complex learners, right the way through to those with more mild to moderate conditions.

And my role there is to get our learners into jobs. Did you know that less than six per cent of, this is in the UK, people with disabilities are in employment, and that is 4.8 per cent in Birmingham. So if that doesn’t make you uncomfortable and desperate to do something about it, then you can stop reading now! So how can you do something about it? And why Match My Project? 

So I was introduced to Match My Project by a contact completely by fluke a couple of years ago. Didn’t really know what it was, gave it a go. Very, very simple and very quick to fill out. I think I probably spent a maximum of half an hour on there, and kind of thought nothing of it, but incredibly we got matched with an organisation with a company called Kier Highways. You might have noticed them at number one on the leaderboard in Birmingham and that’s because of what they have delivered. 

Voluntary sector organisations have asked  about longevity before and we are still very close partners with Kier. Not only did they deliver and provide an amazing work opportunity, a paid position for one of our learners, it’s super easy to use, super quick and I got this fantastic relationship from Kier Highways out of it. So they have delivered first aid training to some of our learners. They’ve delivered vehicle marshalling training. They have had our groups go round their stores and their centre in Aston.

We’ve had multiple work experience students. We’ve probably had about 10 students that have gone to them for long term work, experience opportunities. They have donated money – they’ve bought us three quarters of a car – £15,000 – in the last year. And most incredibly, one of their Social Value managers is now on our board of trustees.

So in terms of longevity, in terms of commitment, in terms of relationship, I hope that gives you a little flavour of the power that Match My Project can have. Such a very simple, very basic, low cost, low input from this side of the fence. But massive, massive what we’ve received back.

Community organisations and businesses in Birmingham can sign up to Match My Project here.