About Fair Shot Cafe
Fair Shot Cafe is a not for profit cafe in Covent Garden, central London. They have a mission very similar to The Mencap Training Academy - to improve the rate at which people with a
learning disability
A learning disability is to do with the way someone's brain works. It makes it harder for someone to learn, understand or do things.
are in
employment
Employment means having a job.
.
Fair Shot offers Mencap Training Academy supported internship learners a work
experience
Experience is when you have learned or tried something before.
placement in their cafe. Learners gain employability skills such as
customer
A customer is a person who buys something or uses a service.
service
A service gives people what they need, like healthcare services that help people when they are ill, and support services that give people support.
, communication, teamwork, as well as food preparation and barista skills.
Fair Shot and Mencap then help learners at the end of the programme to find jobs in other companies across lots of different sectors.
What do learners do at Fair Shot Cafe?
During their work experience placements at Fair Shot Cafe, our supported internship learners:
- Serve customers at the counter, taking their payments from them and working the till
- Help to clean work spaces, tables and floors and clear away food and drink after customers
- Prepare food in the kitchen
- Make coffee for customers. This is called barista work and is a skill that lots of employers want.
What skills will I need?
To successfully attend a work experience placement with Fair Shot Cafe you will need to:
- Be a friendly and helpful person that likes working with people so you can develop good customer service skills.
- Develop an understanding of how different equipment for making food and drinks and taking payments from customers works.
- Develop an understanding of how to work safely and hygienically in places where food and drink is prepared.
- Develop your numeracy skills to help when counting money from customers.
- Develop your confidence on public transport as you will need to travel into central London to work at the cafe. Mencap can provide some travel training at the start of the supported internship programme to help you with this.
Where is it?
Fair Shot Cafe is in Covent Garden in central London. The address is: 3 Slingsby Place, London WC2E 9AB.
Learners who do work experience with Fair Shot must enrol on our north west London supported internship and travel to our classroom in Barnet 1.5 days a week.
When do Fair Shot Cafe placements take place?
Dates: September to July
Days: Mondays to Fridays
Time: Shifts will be from either 8am to 1pm or 1pm to 6pm. Over the course of the year, learners will need to complete 420 hours in the workplace.
Glody's story
Glody completed our pre-internship programme before progressing onto a supported internship and work experience with Fair Shot Cafe. Glody developed his communication skills and confidence by working with customers at Fair Shot. With help from his Mencap skills coach and the Fair Shot employability team, Glody secured paid employment as a back of house steward at The Delauney restaurant where his colleagues love his positive, hard working attitude.
Hear from Shekinah
Watch the video to hear what Mencap Training Academy learner, Shekinah has to say about her placement with Fair Shot Café.
How to enrol
If you are interested in doing work experience with Fair Shot Cafe as part of your supported internship, then you can start the enrolment process by completing our online expression of interest form.
Please indicate that you would like to enrol on our supported internship programme in north west London and then select Fair Shot Cafe from the list of employers when asked who you would like to do work experience with.