First Rung Gets the Stamp of Approval from Youth Mark Assessors

First Rung, a north London training provider, recently received a Silver Youth Mark award.  First Rung, based in Enfield and Colindale, provides training and work experience opportunities for young people, including Entry to Employment Programmes.

The young people who assessed First Rung were impressed by how the organisation strives to maintain and develop a high quality service for their young people through their Quality Improvement Plan.  The assessors felt First Rung's clear policies and procedures helped them consistently deliver services to young people but these needed to be communicated in a more young person friendly format.

 Learners felt staff treated them like adults and this helped them behave more maturely.

"We love the staff here. Staff are very on the level, that's the thing I like the most." Learner at First Rung

The learners felt staff supported them to make their own choices by talking to them about their interests and ambitions:

"When [the staff] saw I was serious they opened doors for me" Learner at First Rung

The assessment found that First Rung gives their learners an opportunity to input into decisions about how the organisation is run through a Learners Voice Forum held every 6 weeks.  Learners indicated that this needed to be better promoted to all learners along with outcomes of the forum's work. 

Diane Vickers, Chief Executive of First Rung said:

"Youth Mark has benefited us greatly and we are delighted to have been presented with the Silver Award.  It has tested the processes and structures which are our foundation. By using the assessor and learner comments we will be able to check the monitoring and reviewing of our procedures and how this information is used and fed back to the learners. It will further improve First Rung's quality, impact and outcomes."

First Rung is only the second organisation to receive the Silver Youth Mark award.