Opening Event

Katie spoke about Skill Step Trainings' mission to deliver outstanding, bespoke  and local labour market led training programmes. She explained how important our values of passion, respect, partnership, quality, inclusion and progression are to everything we do and how these will drive our business strategy now and in the future. Katie went on to detail our ambitions and what programmes we are looking to deliver as the company develops and grows. She spoke about the Government’s new Kickstart Scheme which provides funding to employers to create job placements for 16 to 24 year olds on Universal Credit and how Skill Step Training can support employers with the training element of the scheme. Katie detailed the Qualifications Network accredited courses that Skill Step Training currently run including; First Aid, Health and Safety, Fire Safety, Manual Handling, Mental Health, Safeguarding, Teaching, Assessing and Quality Assurance. Lastly Katie spoke about how Skill Step Training plans to be able to, in the coming months and years, deliver ESFA/ESF funded programmes including; Apprenticeships, Traineeships, Adult Education Programmes (AEB), Skills Support for the Workforce and Skills Support for the Unemployed. After a quick plea to our visitors kindly requesting their support in promoting Skill Step Training through social media and their networks as well as making any relevant introductions it was time to go outside for the officially cutting of the ribbon ceremony. The orange ribbons and bows looked lovely on the loaned stainless steel poles (thanks to our lovely neighbors at The Salutation pub). A quick photo opportunity with our VIPs then it was over to Councillor Bill Mordue to cut the ribbon. Despite not having the sharpest of scissors the unveiling went well and we are very grateful and thankful to Councillor Bill Mordue, Sharon, Pat and Andy for joining and celebrating this joyous occasion with us.

Throughout the rest of the day we welcomed many more visitors and were so excited to see some familiar faces as well as meeting new people. We had a lovely chat with Lindsy James (Director of Active Fusion) and Akeela Mohammed (Deputy Lord Lieutenant) and spoke about the importance of partnership working as the need to stay true to your values. About her visit Lindsy said "great place, great offer and great passion behind what you want to achieve. Looking forward to working with you". We were very pleased to welcome Matthew Lawrie from Doncaster Chamber to talk all things local labour market, skills gaps and opportunities. Dawn Hall (Doncaster Council Local Office for the Children’s Commissioning Manager), Lesley Keeling (Doncaster Council ESFA Adult Education Budget Manager) and Ellie Churchward (Sheffield Council Adult, Family and Community Learning) were next up. These ladies absolutely share our passion for quality education and training which puts the learners at the heart of everything and we can't wait to continue our working relationship with them all. After a few more visits from family and friends we were ready for a glass of fizz ourselves!

As a thank you to all of our visitors for joining us at our Grand Opening event they were given a little goody bag including a Skill Step Training pen, notepad, leaflets and a little chocolate (orange of course!).

We truly are very humbled by the number of kind messages of support we have received via our social media platforms and to our guests for taking the time out of their busy schedules to join us. We loved having you all there and can’t wait to continue to build relationships with key stakeholders and partners to support us in our journey to help children, young people and adults in Doncaster to "build the skills to provide the steps for a better future".