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Trainees in Handcrafted workshop

Training

For many of the people we work with, mainstream education has failed them and cemented the disadvantage they face.

Consequently, we offer a range of accredited and non-accredited training courses from entry level to level 2, aimed at developing the knowledge, skills and behaviors required to combat the barriers that face those without a traditional education.

Through each hub, our trainees benefit from developing their skills within our well-equipped carpentry workshops, training kitchens, working cafes, outdoor spaces, and training rooms. Through use of these facilities, our qualified training team strives to develop the confidence, resilience, employability and independent living skills of all trainees at Handcrafted.

Handcrafted trainee sawing a piece of wood in the workshop

We currently provide training opportunities in the following skill areas:

  • Carpentry, Joinery and Woodwork
  • Essential ICT skills
  • Mental Health and Wellbeing
  • Barista and Customer Service
  • Cooking, Catering and Hospitality
  • Employability skills
  • Creative Crafts
  • Hidden Maths and English

We prioritise holding all of our training and education within positive and welcoming community environments that adopt trauma informed approaches to meet the needs of vulnerable and hard to reach members of the community. Through doing this, we empower people to complete practical projects that serve as a reminder of their creativity, capability and potential, emboldening them to turn their own lives around.

Image depicting someone helping another person up a mountain

Testimonials

There are countless challenges and barriers between our Fairchance service users and a healthy, productive and satisfying life.

We often use the term ‘chaotic lifestyle’ to describe the multitude of issues they face, and we contrast this lifestyle with an ideal that is secure, positive, stable and fulfilling. Often people looking in on the lifestyles of our service users find them intimidating, disorientating and full of risk – it should be no surprise that the same is true the other way around. For our service users who are looking into employment, education and stable accommodation, what they often see is a very unfamiliar culture and environment that they are unable to navigate.

Handcrafted helps to bridge this gap. It’s a middle ground between work and leisure where our service users are building confidence, self-esteem, working relationships, responsibilities, a sense of achievement. As a natural consequence of this and armed with the skills necessary to make this transition our service users are developing goals and ambitions and making plans for the futures that they are beginning to see as a reality for themselves.

Joe K, Fair Chance Project, Oasis Aquila Housing