On Wednesday 14th December we hosted the end of term student celebration day. Everyone had a great day and left feeling positive and inspired. The day started off with a series of workshops held by Lloyds Bank who volunteered their time to share their knowledge with us as part of their volunteering scheme. We were really happy to welcome them to ELATT HQ and they really enjoyed chatting to all the students. The workshops they hosted were on financial literacy, business start-ups and CV and cover letters.

On 24th November we had an amazing capability skills sharing workshop event at ELATT HQ. This was hosted by Equal Voices students who kindly swapped their skills for donations to Cancer Research UK. There were knitting sessions, make up sessions and tutorials, massages and A LOT of food which including swapping recipes. Everyone had a great time and generously donated. The students loved teaching each other their skills and treating each other, whilst enjoying food from many different cultures.

After carrying out a listening campaign this term in Hackney, our Equal Voices students found out the three main issues that people care about are: cost of fuel, housing and ESOL funding cuts. As a group they decided to focus on campaigning about the cost of fuel this term and the other issues next term. Most of the learners are using prepayment metres and felt that they are spending more money on their energy bills compared to people who are not using prepayment metres.

2016 has been an incredible year for ELATT. We won three TES FE awards, including Overall FE provider of the year. We were thrilled by these awards and we’re happy to announce that we’ve been shortlisted for two new TES FE awards for 2017!

We’re up for ‘Contribution to the local community’ and ‘Best Learning and teaching initiative’ for our fantastic efforts in the community and our continued high quality teaching. We’re so proud of everyone that has worked hard to achieve these nominations and we just can’t wait to find out if we’re successful!

The TES FE Awards recognise the most outstanding teams and individuals that the further education sector has to offer. We know we play a significant role in the further education sector, especially in the third sector and we want to make sure we’re continuing to pave the way for training providers that provide a unique and personable approach. Our community is at the heart of what we do and we know that our sector needs more limelight than it currently gets.

Anthony Harmer, our Chief Executive says: 'We’re very pleased to be shortlisted for more TES FE awards this year. We knew that last year was special and a significant year for ELATT, but 2017 is set to be just as good. I’m looking forward to seeing how we evolve as a charity and a training provider.’

To find out more about the other nominations, check out the:

TES website

(By Ning Liu)

On 24 Oct, students from Elatt went to Lunar House to welcome the refugee children.

These children were from the Calais ‘jungle’, they were trapped in this ‘jungle’ for years. Nearly all of them fled from their home counties which are suffering from wars. Since they arrived at Calais, some of them stayed there, but the environment for children was terrible.

ELATT is a unique community, we’re a training provider and a charity. But, most of all we’re here to make your life that bit better. Follow our #ELATTstories campaign to find out more about some of our inspirational students. Over the next couple of weeks we will be releasing even more inspirational videos. Check back here or follow us on Twitter and Facebook to stay part of the conversation. Do you want to be part of the #ELATTstories campaign? Tweet us and we’ll share your story or email us if you’d like to be featured in our blog (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Having become a Living Wage employer in October 2013 and being one of a pioneering group of nearly 3000 employers paying the real Living Wage (and in the first 500 in the UK), we are pleased to announce that we will be increasing our hourly rate of pay in line with the Living Wage Foundation’s newly recommended rate as of the 1^st May 2017. The real Living Wage is independently calculated based on what employees and their families need to get by. The new rates as announced by the Living Wage Foundation on Monday 31^st October will apply to all our staff over 18 and for all staff in London the rate will be £9.75.

Tots and Toddlers Book Clubs are family reading programmes consisting of learning and development for children aged 0-4. We aim to help families who want to improve their spoken and written English who may be new to the UK, unemployed and/or living in deprived boroughs. Parents and children get involved through the introduction and exploration of books, song, rhyme and book choosing. We firmly believe learning together as a family can create remarkable results and real community integration.

On Friday 21^st October Philip Glanville the new Mayor of Hackney visited us at ELATT HQ as part of his tour around East London alongside Citizens UK. We were really excited to be introduced to Mayor Glanville and to showcase our Haggerston centre and get the chance to introduce him to some of our fantastic students. Our Equal Voices students prepared a special presentation for him which was really well received. Mayor Glanville was really engaged throughout and was very interested in finding out more about the project and our wider community project portfolio.

In July Anthony our Chief Executive was elected as a Director of techUK.

techUK is the voice of the UK tech industry, representing the companies and technologies that are defining today and the world that we will live in tomorrow. techUK is committed to helping its members grow by developing markets, building relationships and networks and reducing business costs and risks.