Work Experience and Life Skills
Upskilling and growing together
Work experience in our cafe
We've partnered with several local education providers, Warwickshire Supported Employment and the Job Centre over the past few years to offer work experience placements in our friendly community café.
On a placement in our café, we offer the chance to get stuck in, with support from our team. We've been privileged to see people growing, learning new skills and how to create a sense of welcome.
My favourite thing about working in Saints is meeting new people. I like speaking to people. I like doing the pot wash. I feel like I’m more confident with speaking to people.
- R, who did work experience at Saints
Partnership Spotlight - Oakwood Secondary School
We've been working with Oakwood School since 2022 to host work experience placements, helping local young people with SEN gain valuable experience in a safe, supportive environment.
"It was fantastic to partner with the Saints cafe, to give our Oak Wood Secondary students the chance to carry out work experience. This placement enables our students who would like a career in hospitality and catering, to learn, practice their catering and customer service work skills. A Job Coach supports the students to gather evidence to show an employer they have what they need. The work placement gives our students the chance to show they can be independent, survive in a working environment, follow health and safety rules and communicate with work colleagues and customers." - Oakwood Work Coach
Barista Courses
We've run several barista training courses over the years, which have either been free (funded by grants) or heavily subsidised. These courses have included a combination of practical training, and support to complete an online CPD Barista course, and a level 2 Food Hygiene. The aim of these courses was to help people with a desire to work in hospitality gain some more training and qualifications.
Supporting Care Leavers
In 2024 we developed a new project aimed at helping care leavers build life skills, to help them 'Thrive' in independent living.
The project involves a course which is run for 4 months, involving weekly group sessions and the offer of additional 1-to-1 mentoring. Topics covered include cooking skills, how to clean, do laundry and do basic repairs/DIY, work skills, managing wellbeing and exploring careers and interview skills. Each young person got to take away a hamper of store cupboard essentials and cleaning/laundry products. We finished the course with a party to celebrate all that had been achieved!
We've run two of these courses, and hope to be able to develop the work again in the future, if and when funding allows.
“I liked the chats and topics about making music and cooking. I learned to cook a curry with different ingredients. It was amazing to be a part of it as it taught me to cook and be a part of a group”
- David* Thrive care leavers course participant