40 year old Derry training charity's positive report

The Society Street not-for-profit charity, which delivers the Department for Economy Training for Success programme in business administration, hairdressing, information technology (and retail and its ApprenticeshipsNI programme in pharmacy services was inspected by the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) last month.

Inspectors found that of 46 trainees and apprentices 60 per cent had a “disability and/or additional learning support needs” while most faced other barriers to learning including “mental health issues or involvement with the criminal justice system”.

They found that the overall effectiveness of the training and DYCW’s capacity for identifying and bringing about improvements were good. The outcomes for learners, the quality of training provision and leadership and management were also good.

“DYCW demonstrates the capacity to identify and bring about improvement in the interest of all the trainees and apprentices. There are areas for improvement that the organisation has demonstrated the capacity to address. The ETI will monitor how the organisation sustains improvement,” the ETI reported.

Sixty per cent of trainees were from the Bogside, Brandywell, Creggan, Fountain, Bishop Street and Diamond areas.