Hedley's
Beyond

We are the Hedley’s Beyond team working with employers in the local community to offer good quality work experience opportunities to the students and service users who are supported by the Percy Hedley foundation.

There are 1.5 million people with a learning disability in the UK. Of these, only around a fifth are currently in employment.

We bring together employers who can offer great work experience opportunities to students and members. These opportunities help each person to realise their dreams whilst at the same time build their employability skills, those things we all do and sometimes don’t think about, like: timekeeping, communicating with others, and completing tasks from start to finish.

Our students and members let us know what their aspirations are and we work hard to find a good fit with a local employer.

These relationships benefit everyone involved, we know that employers benefit from having a person with a disability as part of their team, as they tell us our students and members are really committed to getting a job done well.

In customer-facing roles, the relationships with customers and guests are as important as colleague and team relationships that are built. Customers have told us they enjoy meeting our students and service users and those interactions brighten their days.

Every student and member is accompanied by a well-trained member of Percy Hedley support staff, and the feedback we receive about this is always positive.

View our Careers Strategic Plan 24-25  >

We are continuing to build relationships with employers, here are just a few of the current employers we are working with:

  • Greggs
  • The Live Theatre
  • Tyne and Wear Museums
  • National Glass Centre
  • Bellway Homes
  • Newcastle City Council
  • Northumberland Zoo
  • Hextol
  • Jesmond Community Orchard
  • Newcastle United Foundation
  • NHS
  • Scope
  • Westoe Café

“I found this to be a fabulous experience due to the effort determination and enthusiasm that each learner displayed. was a credit to Percy Hedley Foundation and the dedication the support and care from the staff towards the learners was outstanding making the afternoon an excellent experience.”

“Thank you so much for the brilliant training last week. The students gave such a wonderful insight into their experiences and challenges and I’ve had a number of staff get in touch with me directly to say how impactful the training was.”

“We have thoroughly enjoyed it and have all come away with a spring in our step thanks to the warm welcome from all the staff and students. We haven’t seen so many smiles from a group of brilliant people for a very long time”

We Want To Work With You

We are looking to build relationships with organisations who would be able to offer work experience placements. We know that in some situations it is really tough for an organisation to offer this type of option. We are really keen to look at other, more creative ways of involving organisations and would love to have the opportunity to talk to everyone to build these sorts of relationships.

Please contact:

Kerry Robinson, Project Manager, Hedleys Beyond to arrange a meeting to discuss what how we can work together.

hedleysbeyond@percyhedley.org.uk

Or fill in the form below!

Register Your Interest

Fill in this form if you and your company would like to get involved with employability opportunities here within The Percy Hedley Foundation.

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What We've Achieved

Take a look at some of the things we’ve been able to achieve for our students across the Foundation.

Working At Seventeen Nineteen: Jack's Casestudy

Gatsby Benchmarks 1, 2 3, 5 and 6.

Working with Morgan Sindall: James's Case Study

Gatsby Benchmarks 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6.