Skills Building

Getting work ready through skills building

We provide a range of supported volunteering projects that help disabled and neurodivergent people to develop their vocational skills and to get work ready. We do this through our Growth Team and through a variety of other skill building projects based throughout Surrey.

Supported Volunteering

To help you to prepare for work or our employment programmes you can take part in Supported Volunteering. Supported Volunteering involves supporting groups of disabled and autistic people in various volunteering activities. It involves being more flexible and giving extra guidance so that everyone can give back to their community. It will give you a platform to engage with your community whilst learning valuable skills in an inclusive environment.

Supported Volunteering opportunities include:

Helping to manage and provide a Community Fridge to residents in need – Gardening across Surrey making it a better environment for residents to enjoy
Litter picking to improve spaces in the community
Countryside and habitat management through the Growth Team
Supporting and working with Eco Hubs
Working within community cafe in Staines where you will be supported in a group to learn catering skills in a working cafe including how to use a till and how to make refreshments safely.
Working in libraries and charity shops to learn customer service skills

Supported Volunteering is a powerful way for organisations to show they care about the communities they operate in. Surrey Choices believes in creating meaningful partnerships with businesses to make a positive impact. If you can offer volunteering opportunities within your organisation or want to see how you can work with Surrey Choices in the community get in touch with us.

Skills Building Programmes

To help you to get ready for work, our Vocational Projects help you to develop your employment skills through a variety of different programmes. Within these programmes there are many areas in which you can improve your skills, including:

Gardening, such as growing your own vegetables to donate to a foodbank and planting flowers in the community
Catering, such as baking, food hygiene courses and cooking the vegetables that you have grown
IT, such as learning how to use email

Choices Waves

You can learn media skills through our digital broadcaster Choices Waves.

Choices Waves is a broadcaster that supports people to learn skills for employment through creating digital content, such as podcasts and music shows. Choices Waves enables disabled people to consider important issues that affect their lives, to have a voice and be heard.

Other skills that you will learn at Choices Waves include:

Improving your communication and presentation skills
Learning how to problem solve and overcome barriers
Learning how to raise awareness of issues affecting disabled people
Learning about current events
Building your confidence

Listen now to the Choices Waves podcast Surrey Voices now

You can learn these skills by joining us at the Longmead Hub based in Redhill.

Testimonials

Nikki

Nikki lives by herself and has been working very hard to learn new skills to help her navigate through each day. From cooking, cleaning, shopping and more, she has become very skilled at living an independent lifestyle.
Nikki’s garden had become very overgrown, making the pathway to her front door inaccessible and unsafe. Nikki wanted to clear her garden and decided that her next challenge was to learn a range of gardening and horticultural skills so she could do this. She took matters into her own hands and learnt how to trim down hedges, weeds and more to restore her garden to the lovely green space that it once was. Since doing this, Nikki’s garden is much easier to walk through and she has reduced the risk of tripping over any plants or hedges.

Nikki said: “I feel much safer and less likely to trip over now my pathway is cleared. I feel really good when I look at the result of my hard work.”

Nikki is now eager to begin working on her back garden, so she can have a peaceful place to sit during the summer and enjoy her garden more.

Parents’ Quotes

“The Skills Building Projects are providing activity and purpose for my daughter as well as the opportunity to interact socially with the staff and other clients. The staff are wonderful and very caring. My daughter always looks forward to going to Surrey Choices sessions”

“I love that he can develop his skills at Surrey Choices in things that he is passionate about. He is proud to be able do podcasts and radio shows. He firmly believes that there aren’t enough disabled podcasts or radio DJ’s so he is delighted to do this.”

“It is great to see the real life work she is doing out in the community. This gives me such reassurance for the future”