GQA Qualifications is lending its support to a progressive and life-changing initiative for young people called ‘Nobody Left Behind.’ The scheme combines community sports programmes with construction-related training and qualifications to improve young people’s employment prospects for entry-level construction industry roles.

Following a 4-week programme of community sports training with household name sports stars, students move on to work towards gaining GQA’s Level 1 Award in Construction Health and Safety and the GQA green general construction site Labourer’s CSCS card, as well as H&S-related training such as manual handling and traffic marshalling, all accredited through GQA. Civil Engineering Careers, the agency championing the work-related training then facilitates interviews with construction employers who look to offer employment opportunities to programme participants.

Commenting on its work with Nobody Left Behind GQA’s Technical Officer, Phil Douglas, says:

“I noticed posts in my local area in Liverpool for community boxing camps and having been involved in amateur boxing myself at schoolboy level, and also being a boxing fan, I started to find out more about this project. I reached out to and met with the initiative’s team, and it was clear that GQA would be a good fit for the learning element of the programme. We have rapidly built a good working relationship and have supported the scheme in its development.

I’m pleased to be working with the programme and its participants, helping them to benefit from GQA-accredited qualifications, CSCS cards and certificates. In addition, I’m happy to report that GQA and Building Our Skills – Making Fenestration, Glass and Glazing a Career of Choice have provided sponsorship support to help the programme get off the ground. We’ve donated towards a minibus that the initiative needs to help transport young people from further across the area, and we have been very pleased to be able to help in this small way. We have also been asked about development into other sectors in which we work.

I understand that Nobody Left Behind has set itself the challenge of getting 1,000 young people into employment in the next four years, and that’s a goal we’re honoured to get fully behind. It’s a pleasure to see the sense of achievement on the faces of the young people when they are told they have passed their CSCS card test, and the joy in their voices when they tell their friends “I’m starting work on Monday.” The initiative is a perfect fit with GQA’s philosophy of people development.”

Barbara Travis, MD of CE Careers who heads up the initiative says: