Employability & Enterprise Skills: Our Activity Carousel

Learning Innovation for Sustainable Futures

“To live in the third millennium, we shall need ... new thinking joined with new ways of perceiving ourselves, others, nature & the world around us.”
(Ervin Laszlo, 1997)

Contented manages delivery of a portfolio of innovative emloyability and enterprise programmes designed to equip people for 21st century work. We ensure:

- Creative faclitators all meet our ISO9001-certificated quality processes and support learner accreditation;

- Work placements deliver measurable value to employers;

- A network of specialist mentors and coaches.

Key Features of our Learning Workshops & Development Programmes

• Flexible tailored delivery including weekday and weekend residential / non-residential
• Modular accredited activities focused on progression
• Embedding functional and other employability skills
• Preparation for portfolio careers & self-employment
• Continual review and motivational coaching
• Skills transfer across work contexts
• Raising international awareness
• Meeting local business needs

Our portfolio of support for employability and enterprise.

	International Professional Development Our flagship international professional development programme, covering economic, cultural and ecologic sustainability. Includes shadowing a senior consultant and a fortnight residential overseas, funded by the EU.
	The Warriors Path Leadership Game Live and unscripted, each game serves to significantly deepen individual and organizational awareness, leadership effectiveness and team cohesion. It presents a series of unpredictable and fascinating examples that can reflect pressures of business, organizational dynamics and politics, professional competition, and family and individual daily life: repeated opportunities for each participant to observe oneself honestly.
	Social Enterprise Start-up Labs Individual Learning Plans feed into a team process designed to generate community-focused citizen action-learning projects and inter-generational enterprises. We build a shared vision, clarify individual tasks and support required, and pitch for start-up investment.
	Responsible Events Placements with events professionals plan, promote and host creative gatherings or festivals that promote sustainability with employers. We budget, build databases, create marketing materials and business cards, and negotiate supplies. All dress appropriately to meet and greet delegates, exploring ideas by listening, discussing needs, selling strengths and connecting people.
	Outdoor Adventures Organising ‘bush skills’ adventures to ensure we survive and leave no trace. Experiential activities build personal and social skills and teach about closed systems and unintended consequences. We develop awareness of food, shelter, energy, waste and our cultural heritage, connect to a deeper sense of purpose, responsibility and respect. We use nature as a tool for creative thinking.
	Low carbon: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Learners work in enterprises that repair and recondition household items from furniture to fridges; that generate energy; or that prepare and retail old building materials. We learn to distinguish reducing, reusing and recycling, to assess risks and take part in collections; and to understand how materials can be used to reduce negative impacts of buildings and machines.
	Animation & Documentary Production Media projects are professional story-telling activities that are interactive and fun. Learners analyse and critique familiar TV, radio, games or films and meet people who have worked on them, discussing editorial responsibilities such as music rights, balance, taste & decency, as well as care for resources. We use software employed by production companies and work with mentors to respond to briefs. We learn to delegate and work in teams and visit companies where prospective employers give constructive feedback.
	International Clubs Immersive activities use body, gesture, creativity and games to stimulate group interaction and practice languages in an inclusive way. We learn simple expressions encountered in our cities, popular culture, or on holiday. We develop mutual understanding of other people and come to appreciate how and why they behave and think differently.
	Accreditation We tailor activities to learners’ aspirations, selecting QCF units and qualifications to complement other curriculum achievements, to motivate and to progress them towards their dreams.
	Staff Leadership Development Contented also delivers unique and engaging professional development opportunities with accredited leadership and management learning. Our team of specialist trainers and coaches includes award-winning former head teachers, public sector managers and bosses of companies and social enterprises who have delivered a range of government-sponsored support for implementing 14-19 and HE reform, and developed strategic corporate responsibility programmes. Your own staff and mentors can access the same high standard of active learning as we deliver to our younger clients.
	Quality facilitation Key to successful delivery is our learning community of enterprising and professional trainers and mentors. We are dedicated to leading brilliant teaching and learning, and passionate about the opportunities of change and new ways of relating to society and planet. Continual development is rooted in action research — keeping up with industry practice and debate around sustainable development and business responsibility. We are committed to ISO, Ofsted and Matrix quality standards and the Teacher Development Agency’s Code of Conduct.
	Induction & Initial Assessment Progressing round an activities ‘carousel’ we ask: ‘What is my contribution to society?’ Peer-support helps all reflect on our personal qualities and transferrable skills and how the workplace and society might value them. Personalised induction programmes encourage ownership of individual learning objectives. Short activities accredit Equal Opportunities & Diversity, and Health, Safety & Environment, with carbon footprint exercises, assessing personal, learning & thinking skills, and building digital portfolios.