Employ My Ability was founded in 2013, by professionals with experience across Children’s and Adults services in a range of settings.
Since opening in 2013 EMA has been committed to providing a quality education provision for young people where they are firmly at the centre of building their own futures. In March 2023, The Government published the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, which focuses on the needs of young people with SEND as they transition through different stages of life and prepare for adulthood.
The themes of this plan have continued to be our founding principal; “Right Support, Right Place & Right Time are essential in enabling young people to thrive.”
Accordingly, our core beliefs and commitments are:
- Young People with SEND have the potential to gain meaningful work in a range of vocational settings.
- Environment is key to people learning and these environments must be real and age appropriate.
- Young People with SEND should be given the opportunities to develop skills and transition into work environments.
- A solid commitment to Careers Education, Information, Advice & Guidance is essential to support young people with SEN in reaching their aspirations.
- Through the process of “Preparing for Adulthood”, an ongoing commitment to supporting a young person’s pathway towards whole life independence.
- To fully embed Speech & Language Therapy (SALT) into our curriculum, so that it is intertwined with our teaching and not delivered as an additional standalone therapy.
EMA’s CEIAG programmes are bespoke to each student and can be found in every aspect of our provision. This prepares our students to take charge of their careers and lives by having clear, achievable and aspirational aims for what they want to do when they leave us. As well as knowing what needs to be done in order to achieve their plans for further education, training, work, independence, accessing their communities and keeping healthy. EMA underpins this by clearly evidencing students’ progress towards these realistic outcomes.
The Walled Garden welcomed its first students in September 2015, we continued to develop our qualifications and vocational areas, and then opened the gardens and café to the public.
In October 2017 we expanded EMA with the acquisition of Thorngrove Garden Centre in Gillingham from The Charity Scope. Thorngrove was already running a day service provision, so this suited EMA’s vision already! The Garden Centre and its surroundings were run down and needed lots of redevelopment and modernising to make it suitable for its current day service provision and the addition of education.
The next year was spent developing the grounds and classrooms, introducing The Secret Garden Café, improving the environment of the site, decorating the shop and having another glass house put up. With horticulture experts on hand, as well as a sustainable business approach and ethos, Thorngrove is now one of the fastest growing garden centres in Dorset.
In September 2019 Thorngrove opened to its first 8 education students studying functional skills and a variety of vocational qualifications, and to date we have provided education and work experience to over 63 students across both sites.
