NHC Unlocking Success Bursary Scheme awards 13 tenants with £500 bursary
The Unlocking Success Bursary Scheme, funded through the Northern Housing Consortium Charitable Trust, awards bursaries of £500 to help tenants develop learning and skills to support future employment. Since its launch in 2019, we have awarded 88 bursaries to successful applicants to help them with various forms of learning and development including IT courses, books for A-Levels, a British Sign Language course and travel costs for getting to college.
The 2023 edition of the scheme launched in April and we had 33 brilliant applicants from 14 of our members. Of these 33 applications, 13 were successful and were awarded £500 to help support their future employment. The bursaries will go towards a range of different training and skills development, including towards the training costs and purchasing a laptop to complete online training in helping young people and young offenders in the community. Another successful applicant will use the bursary to fund a First Response Emergency Care Level 3 course, with an expectation of eventually joining the Ambulance Service.
The successful applicants will use the bursary for a variety of forms of education, such as HGV driver training and training in food safety and hygiene to work in a school kitchen. One bursary winner will use the grant for a laptop to help support their whole family with English courses, along with starting a Level 1 Plumbing course.
Simone, a tenant who was awarded the £500 bursary for a First Response Emergency Care (FREC) course said:
“Thank you so much! For all the support with helping me apply for this bursary, as well as the FREC which has given me such a good start to my new path !!!
I have applied for the C1 on my license now, and I can’t wait to start my driver training, which wouldn’t have been possible any time soon without this bursary! I am so happy and grateful to have people supporting and believing in me, and to be chosen for it…
I am definitely on the right path now and come September I will either be working and training with North West Ambulance Service as an EMT or training to be a paramedic at Warrington Vale!!”
Another tenant awarded the £500 bursary was Peter, who is putting the money towards a Security Industry Authority (SIA) license, Peter said:
“I would like to start off by saying thank you so much for accepting my application and for being successful this had made a huge impact on my mental health already as I know that once the payment comes through for the training things will start improving for me in terms of financial stability, more work, better mental health and I can eventually start reducing my rent arrears.
More work and being full time also means I will be able to earn a wage and not rely on universal credits and the uncertainty of shifts I was able to claim without my SIA license. I would have never of been able to save up for this training myself and everything alongside it i.e. travel expenses etc.”
To read more of the success stories from past successful bursary applications, see here.
Congratulations to this year’s 13 successful applicants! Look out for updates on the next round of the bursary in 2024, further information on the scheme is available on our website.
