High Level Employment Delegation visits WAC
On the 14th November, a high-level delegation of senior
officials from the European Commission, the Department for
Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Greater London Authority (GLA)
visited WAC Performing Arts and Media, a founding member of the
Rinova Consortium.
The visit was headed by Peter Stub Jorgensen, who is in charge
of the Directorate-General for Employment at the European
Commission, which oversees the European Social Fund (ESF).
During a 90-minute visit, the delegation met WAC's staff,
tutors and students to hear first-hand how funded programmes such
as ESF and Europe's Leonardo da Vinci programme (see ASPIRE - a
project that WAC partners) enabled WAC and its consortium partners
to engage with the hard to reach and design positive activities to
support them back into education or employment.
In a lively discussion, the Directors of WAC and Rinova, Celia
Greenwood and Richard Parkes presented a view 'from the ground'
about effective partnership working; the importance of
transnational work to innovation; progression to apprenticeships
and other mainstream programmes; and how the move to 'Prime
Contractors' in the Work Programme and top-down
commissioning risks losing 'bottom up' solutions in
project design and effectiveness.
Richard Parkes commented "The officials
that visited WAC do not come much more senior in this line of
work. I applaud them for taking time out of the huge demands they
have on their time to see first hand the impact of their
programmes on young lives - and for being prepared to listen
to the views of students and staff about our experiences of 'what
works'".
The picture above was taken on the steps outside WAC's premises
at Hampstead Town Hall at the close of the visit and includes (from
left):
- Celia Greenwood, Director, WAC Performing Arts and Media
- Peter Stub Jorgensen, Director, DG Employment, Social Affairs
and Inclusion
- Angus Gray, Head of ESF Division (Department for Work and
Pensions)
- Bernardo Rodrigues, (GLA Brussels Office)
- Alex Conway, the Director of the European Programmes Management
Unit (GLA)
- Elueterio Rodriguez, Desk Officer, United Kingdom, Ireland,
Greece, Cyprus, DG Employment
- Alan Tyler, European Social Fund Division Policy Team from the
Department for Work & Pensions
- Richard Parkes, Founder, Rinova
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