On this page, you can find out in detail about the three main activities that all our programmes involve:
-
Work experience
Work
experience
Experience is when you have learned or tried something before.
is when you try out a job to help you learn new skills.
and employer engagement - Classroom learning
- Enrichment and additional support.
If the information on this page sounds good to you, then search our programmes to find the one closest to you.
Work experience and employer engagement
Learners on our
supported internships
A work placement for young people with additional needs, where they get support from a job coach.
complete at least 420 hours of work experience between September and July. This will be closer to 900 hours on one of our employer-led supported internships. But on our Pre-internships, which we have designed for young people who are less confident about starting work experience, learners complete 45 hours, alongside other employer engagement activities like visits to employer premises and guest speaker visits.
You can find out more about our different programme types on our homepage.
All our learners are accompanied in their work experience placements by one of our amazing skills coaches. They help our learners to learn tasks specific to their placement and work with employers to help them effectively support learners also.
What do our learners think about their work experience placements?
Watch our video to see what previous Mencap Training Academy learners have to say about their different work experience placements and what they achieved while on our programmes.
More choice
As part of a national charity with a well known brand, Mencap has partnerships with lots of different employers in lots of different sectors. Our learners do work experience in areas like retail, hospitality, logistics, healthcare and administration.
If you don’t yet know what kind of work you want to do, then we help you to understand what kind of jobs would be a good fit for you based on your skills, needs and interests. There are lots of different kinds of jobs out there that you might not have even heard of before, that could be a great fit! We can’t promise that you will find your dream job through our courses, but we will help you to gain experience of work that is suited to you, and that, alongside our classroom sessions, will teach you transferrable skills to help you develop a successful career.
Employers we work with
Here are some examples of employers we work with to offer work experience placements to our learners. Click on the logos to find out more.
We work with lots of different employers in lots of sectors. To see which employers we work with in specific local areas, search our programmes.
Classroom learning
Our tutors run sessions at our classrooms, covering topics like how to find and apply for jobs, communication skills and workplace behaviours. We also help learners work toward English and maths qualifications. The amount of time learners spend in class and the content depends on the type of programme they are on. On a supported internship you will need to attend one of our classrooms 1.5 days a week and on a pre-internship this would be 3 days a week. But on an employer-led supported internship, learners complete less time in class and complete the whole programme at the premises of their host employer.
Our class sizes are normally between 10 to 12 learners, meaning we provide a much smaller, calmer environment than some mainstream
education
Education is when you learn things. When you fill in a form to get a job, education means you write where you went to school, college or university.
settings.
To find out where our different classrooms are, search our programmes.
What is it like to attend our classroom sessions?
At our most recent inspection, Ofsted found that: "learners learn and work in friendly and nurturing environments where tutors and skills coaches care about them and their futures."
See what learners have to say about our sessions and to hear from one of our tutors.
Our curriculum
We cover lots of topics during our classroom sessions which we work to make relevant to learners' work experience placements.
Select from the buttons on the right to see more about the different topics we cover under each subject.
Additional support
Our learners benefit from extra support where needed like travel training during the first six weeks of supported internships. Our wellbeing officers provide support around mental wellbeing and our careers advisor is on hand to provide careers education, information, advice and
guidance
Guidance means being given clear instructions to be able to do something well.
(CEIAG).
Step 1: Express your interest
The best way to first express your interest in one of our programmes is to complete our online expression of interest form and to provide us with the information it asks you for. A member of the local team where you have expressed an interest in joining one of our programmes will then be in touch to arrange next steps (see below).
Alternatively, you can get in touch directly with our local programme coordinators whose email and phone numbers you can find in the FAQ sections of our individual programme pages. Search our programmes here.
Or you can email our general enquiries mailbox and we will work to get back to you as soon as possible: employment.support@mencap.org.uk
Step 2: Arrange assessment
An assessment is a way of finding out what help a person needs. When you have an assessment, you might have to go to a meeting or fill in a form.
meetingsIf you meet the basic eligibility criteria (aged between 16 and 24 and have an EHCP), then we will arrange to meet with you. Before then, we'd love to see a copy of your EHCP or that of the person you are enquiring on behalf of, so we can discuss this at the meeting.
We will likely ask to meet with prospective learners at least twice so we can ask the questions we need to in order to make sure our programmes are the right fit for young people.
- Potetial step 3: Identify a suitable work pathway
If we agree one of our programmes is suitable for you, we will work with you to understand what type of work experience is best suited to your skills, needs and interests. We may ask you to attend an open day with one of our employer partners before you start the programme so you know a bit about the workplace you will be going in to.
You do not need to pay to access any of our programmes as they are funded by the Department for Education and local authorities.
If you are on Universal Credit (UC) and are also claiming Personal Independence Payments (PIP), then you can also apply for a Work Capability Assessment (WCA) from your local job centre. Once this is agree, learners can join one of our programmes without their benefits being affected. This process can take time, however, so it is important to start your application to join the programme as early as possible before the start of the academic year in September.
Learners are not paid while on our programmes.
The aim of supported internships is to help learners develop skills, behaviours and experiences that will help them to secure paid
employment
Employment means having a job.
. This may be with an employer that learners do work experience with while on one of our programmes, or we will help learners to apply for other opportunities, applying the skills and experiences they have gained from the programme.
Our employer partners sometimes offer paid employment by employers before the end of the academic year in July.
All of our supported internship and pre-internship programmes run for an academic year from September to July. We aim to support learners on our pre-internships to
transition
Transition means changing from one thing to another. Transition sometimes means things like when you change from having children's social care to adult social care.
onto our supported internships and where this is achieved, learners then spend a further year with us. Our programmes are full-time education programmes. It is possible for some people to start on our programmes in October if they narrowly miss the September cut off point.
The government
The Government are the people who run the country. They decide how much
tax
Tax is the money that pays for things like schools, hospitals and the police. There are different types of taxes like
income tax
Income tax is the money that is taken out of the money you earn every month. It helps to pay for things we all need like hospitals and schools.
,
VAT
VAT is also called Value Added Tax. VAT is the extra money you pay when you buy things. The money goes to the government to pay for things like schools and hospitals.
and
council tax
Council Tax is the money that people pay to the council. It helps to pay for things like social care (support for people), parks and dustbin collection.
.
people should pay for things and how things like the National Health Service should work.
currently requires all learners on supported internships to have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).
In some cases, we may be able to support you in applying to your local authority for an EHCP and/or to advise you on how to start the process.
You can find more information about EHCPs and the process for obtaining one on the Mencap
website
A website is a page you can go to on the internet like Google or YouTube.
here: https://www.mencap.org.uk/advice-and-support/children-and-young-people/education-health-and-care-plans-explained
Yes. We understand some young people may not be very experienced or confident around using public transport when they first join us. We therefore offer travel training for up to 6 weeks at the start of our supported internships to help learners learn routes between home and their work experience placements.
The FAQ sections of our individual programme pages also provide links to local authority travel training offers that you may be able to access before joining one of our programmes.
