Evaluation Title

An Evaluation of the Personal Effectiveness and Employability through the Arts Project

Summary of evaluation

This is an external evaluation of the PEETA project involving the development, piloting and subsequent award of a new BTEC qualification known as Supporting Employability and Personal Effectiveness (SEPE).  The qualification aims to help those who may find accessing traditional routes to employability challenging. The project was piloted in five prison settings across Europe: the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Austria and Turkey.

It was designed by Superact and the University of Exeter in association with awarding body Edexcel - Superact was the lead partner and assumed the responsibility for project management and training of the in-country artists.

The over-arching aim of the external evaluation was to assess the extent to which the project has delivered against its objectives, to:

• pilot the delivery of a new UK award in prisons in a range of EU countries and contexts
• trial and refine a training package that will enable partnerships introducing the award to set learning objectives, teach, feed-back and assess employability skills on a consistent basis
• build communities of practice within each partner country and across the partnership as a whole, so that lessons and consistency / quality can be assured through observation, moderation and mutual learning
• research and evaluate effectiveness, building lessons learned into the guidance and training materials developed for a wider audience
• mainstream the qualification, by networking and building relationships at regional and national level, and with a wider EU audience.

Project description

SEPE is a new BTEC qualification being offered by Edexcel and Superact.  It is designed to help those who may find accessing traditional routes to employability challenging. It seeks to build confidence and allow participants to gain a meaningful qualification.  Whilst not the primary objective it was hoped that participants would develop a passion for learning becoming ‘learning receptive’ through the unique, holistic delivery of the course.  It is innovative partly because it makes a direct link between participation in the arts and the development of the 'soft' skills needed for work.

SEPE has been designed to help learners to gain and retain a job, and then to advance in the workplace through development of the soft skills that employers seek. These include adaptability, a ‘can do’ attitude and objectivity about strengths and weaknesses.  The qualification is being trialled in five prison settings across Europe: Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Austria and Turkey.  In each country there is a project partner responsible for the delivery of the Award in a prison. 

Links

• Prisoners' Education Trust website →

Info

Organisation

Superact

CJS Context

Prison

Region

England

Evaluating organisation

Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, Sheffield Hallam University

Author

Del Roy Fletcher

Conducted: April 2012 – July 2012
Published: October 2012
Type: Academic Institution report

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