They’ve got the talent and your job is to unleash it!

Funded by the National Lottery through the Big Lottery Fund, Aspire Foundation will deliver 3 Start Your Own Business courses a year in Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Newham based upon our celebrated pilot programme (Evening Standard, Inside Housing). It is a 3 year programme with huge potential for growth locally and nationally.

We’re looking for an outstanding Business Trainer with an excellent personal track-record in business to lead our programmes and inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs who just happen to live in disadvantaged communities.

You will be supported by a dedicated Project Co-ordinator/Mentor and Aspire Foundation’s management team.

Remuneration:

3 courses x 12 days work (7 hours) (36 days in total) @ £200 per day plus expenses

Application deadline:

17 February 2012  -  (CV + covering letter)

Interviews:

27 February 2012 (Central London)

Further details on:

owen@aspire-foundation.com

www.aspire-foundation.com

Homeless people in London are being offered training to help them start their own businesses. The Aspire Foundation is working with a network of the capitals homeless charities in a bid to offer an “alternative way out of poverty”. The organisation is offering six-week courses in various locations across the city to help teach people the skills they need to get started in business.

Since its launch in October, the Aspire Foundation says the project, which includes covers topics such as start-up ideas or finding your market, has been an “overnight success” with dozens of homeless people already signed up to attend. They are hopeful that many businesses will soon start up, ranging from window cleaning through to West Indian food outlets and advice services.

Trainer Paul Funnell, a self-made entrepreneur, said: “Running these courses, I have been really inspired by the untapped talent available.

“My passion is to see people fulfil their potential and ambitions. Many of the people we are working with are used to incredibly long days full of hard work and hardship. Whilst some may not suit a traditional 9-5, they have the dedication and determination they will need to succeed as their own boss.”

The charity says the success of the project is due to its emphasis on practical and realistic business plans, and that people respond better to straightforward advice than complicated diagrams, business models and theoretical studies.

Felix Fry, from the homeless charity Connections at St Martin’s near Trafalgar Square, said: “I can see Aspires work has got our clients seriously thinking about the possibilities of starting their own business. Their courses and experience make the processes and bureaucracy all seems less impersonal and forbidding.”

For more information call 02079214446 or visit www.aspire-foundation.com.

“THCH is proud of our standards of estate management and we are excited by the opportunity that working with the Aspire Foundation offers to ensure that we can both maintain our high standards and also help train and employ local residents to provide that service to their homes.” says Director of Housing, David Eatwell.

Tower Hamlets Community Housing is a housing association which puts residents at the heart of their work. Residents hold positions on their board and local resident boards are very much involved in helping to steer the organisation.  To find out more please visit their website www.thch.org.uk

“I qualified  at university with a Masters in computer programming but when I came here after fleeing my home country it was very difficult to find work.  I spent my first years in the UK working long hours as a kitchen porter, evening chef and then finally deli-bar assistant.  It was hard work but I was happy to work, I don’t like to ask anyone else for money.

Unfortunately life was not so easy in the years after. Abebe faced many hardships as he was unable to work and, without access to benefits he soon struggled to make ends meet.  Determined to carry on, Abebe continued to develop the software he’d started working on before becoming unemployed.

“I call 2005 to 2010 my ‘lost years’ I was out of work and had no way to get any money. Now with the Aspire Foundation programme my business, EPOSBuilder, is up and running and making sales.  I was really struggling to use old broken computers, but thanks to Aspire and MillRace IT I have a desktop with lots of memory, I can really develop my software to the next level.

“All I want to do is use my skills to give my customers what they want.  I designed my software after years of using poor programs, and I want to give people software they can use.  More than 15 companies are now using my program and every one of them is very happy with it.”

To find out more about Abebe’s business please go to www.eposbuilder.com

To read the full Evening Standard story please click here

MillRace IT are an IT and WEEE recycling social enterprise that have worked with Aspire Foundation in the Green Jobs Partnership.  They kindly agreed to provide two computers to help our 2010 Start Your Own Business programme in the homeless sector.

“It has been really hard.  Coming to the UK with absolutely nothing, I ended up living in a homeless hostel and needing the help of others to get by.  Fortunately with the fantastic support of the homeless hostel and Aspire Foundation I managed to get myself on the Start Your Own Business project.”

From there on, Chris has been living an amazing story of determination and talent turning a simple business idea into a reality that has captured the support of everyone who has crossed his path.

Chris’s business will be A.B. Enterprises when it launches later this year having won an Aspire Foundation Business Award and several guaranteed pre-orders from members of the business networking association BNI and several major charities, including his old hostel.

“I really wasn’t looking forward to working again when I first joined up, but it felt good and I began to look forward to going in every day.

Going straight into full time work would have been impossible for me at that time – I wouldn’t have coped and I’d have gone back to drinking. But with the support I got from Aspire, I soon began to get back into a routine and found that I could manage. They allowed me to make a few mistakes and they stuck with me when I found things tough – that made all the difference.

Now I’ve got stability and structure back into my life. I make my own decisions about my future again – I didn’t have the confidence to do that before I got back into working.

I’ve got loads of energy for work now, and I know I can handle things. That’s given me the motivation to look for a full time job.”

*Names have been changed

“I’d been out of work for about 9 years and although I wanted to work again, I was quite worried and afraid about doing that. I thought it would be difficult to get a job because of my background. I was on medication for mental health problems and because I’d been homeless and hadn’t worked for such a long time, I thought no-one would want to know.

But Aspire were great. They really helped me get back on my feet. It was difficult to adjust to working again at first but they stuck with me through a tricky patch. The flexibility was brilliant and they supported me with all kinds of things to help me keep working.

Now I’m happy staying with Aspire for the moment because I need to take my time to make sure the changes I’m making last – I’ve reduced my medication and I’ve moved into a new place. But I’d like to get a permanent job in another area so now I’m doing voluntary work in my spare time to get experience.

I’ll never not work again. I feel like a completely different person. I feel a lot more confident about the future. People treat me differently now – they have more respect for me and I feel a lot better about myself.”

Business Networking International chapters from across London gathered for a fantastic fund-raising evening raising £970 to help make these awards possible. We’d like to say a big thank you to BNI for their generosity and continued support.

The training gave all those attending added detail and insights into existing social enterprise models. Thanks to the support of the National Housing Seminar and the governments Transition Fund we were able to offer a reduced seminar rate. To see the full programme of the day please click here.