Project SEARCH

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is very proud to be the employment partner for Project SEARCH Bradford, which provides young people with learning difficulties with the opportunity gain work experience to increase their chance of securing meaningful paid employment.

Since the first programme was launched at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in 1996, the Project SEARCH model has expanded to more than 300 sites across the United States and the rest of the world.

Bradford Project SEARCH is an annual programme which provides three internships which offer students continual feedback on their performance and areas for learning and improvement.

Interns carry out real jobs in real work environments. They have the opportunity to think about what job they would like to do, and we aim to match their interests and skills with work placements.

Interns must also develop a career plan with our job coach and tutor.

Work placements

Project SEARCH Bradford interns take part in three different work placements at the Trust, providing them with more than 900 hours of work experience.

All interns receive initial one-to-one support on each placement, as well as ongoing feedback, skills development training and help from a workplace mentor.

Base room

We are based at Bradford Royal Infirmary and have a base room where interns take part in twice daily training sessions.

Interns must work towards gaining an employability skills qualification, and also receive help and guidance on work placements practices, searching for a job and preparing for interviews.

Paid employment

The ultimate goal of Project SEARCH is to support each intern in finding full-time paid employment. Last year’s employment outcomes saw 66.7 per cent of interens secure a permanent role.

The national average employment rate for young people with a learning disability is sadly less than 6%.

Our partners

Southfield School, Bradford

Southfield is a ‘generic’ special school, which means that they provide a specialist educational provision across a wide spectrum of learning difficulties and complex disabilities.

Southfield School holds the franchise with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to use the resources and expertise of Project SEARCH.

For Project SEARCH Bradford, they provide:

• A full-time Tutor
• Project Assistant
• Facilities for the Base Room and petty cash for incidentials
• Funding

Hft is a nationwide charity which provides local support services for people with learning disabilities. They support people to allow them to live life the way they choose and empower people to make their own choices, including finding a job.

For Project SEARCH Bradford, they provide:

• A full-time job coach
• An additional job coach for initial placements
• Resources for our base room
• Funding

Bradford Travel Training Service

Bradford Travel Training Unit helps people who have never travelled on public transport before and need to get to school, college or work. They also help people who already travel to some places on their own but want to learn new journeys.

They believe that safe, responsible, independent travel helps reduce the impact of exclusion on disadvantaged individuals and supports their integration into education, employment and society in general.

For Project SEARCH Bradford, they provide:

• One-to-one travel training for all interns
• Ongoing support for interns learning new routes
• Steering group member