Lambeth Council community project scores gold » Communities » 24dash.com

Personal Best, a Lambeth Council project encouraging unemployed and socially excluded people to gain new skills in the run up to the 2012 Olympics, is coming up trumps.

A new batch of Personal Best undergraduates are about to begin training, and 60 per cent of last year’s graduates have either taken up volunteering or employment opportunities, or gone on to further or higher education.

This includes Owen Spence, an ex-offender who is now studying for a BTEC in Sports Science at Lambeth College.

Funding of £389k has been secured for the next two years of this project (2008-10) which aims to train a volunteer workforce for the 2012 Olympics.

Owen joined the programme in February 2008 and studied a wide variety of subjects ranging from the history of the Olympics to customer care. He then went on to a work placement at the Clapham Park Project where he honed his newly learned skills in an admin office.

He says: “I learned a lot from this project and gained loads of experience working with different people in lots of different places. I really enjoyed it. I have already recommended this project to other people. “

The ‘class of 2008’ are due to start training or volunteering courses in the coming weeks and the council is approaching more than 250 people to set them on the road to improved job prospects. When they finish training, Personal Best graduates will be eligible to take up employment opportunities, volunteering, or further training.

Councillor John Kazantzis, Lambeth Council Cabinet Member for Employment and Enterprise said: “Supporting the Olympics will require a huge workforce and this scheme has already proved that the benefits go far beyond supporting the games. Families and individuals can reap the rewards of improved employment prospects both before the games and afterwards.

“Owen has already overcome a difficult start in life and has achieved so much – I am sure he will be an inspiration for many”.