Erin Riehle, who set up the ‘Project Search’ movement in Cincinnati in 1996 to help young people with disabilities get into training and employment, visited the namesake Blackpool Council scheme this week.

Blackpool Council’s Project Search programme, which is currently in its third year, has already helped dozens of young adults through workplace training and into full time employment.

Its success rate of 70% of students reaching employment is above the global average for the scheme and resulted in the global scheme’s founder to fly over and present the responsible team with a special award for their efforts.

Erin Riehle met with current and former students of the scheme, as well as talking to the tutors about how the project is working in Blackpool.

She said: “When I set up this project I never believed it would be so successful. Now there are 450 Project Search programmes around the world; across the USA, as well as in Britain, Canada, Holland, Portugal and even Bahrain. Over 4,000 students are helped by Project Search every year with over three quarters of them ending up in full time employment.

“In the US and the UK there are great policies to help people with disabilities in to work, but Project Search also puts the structure together to help the students get properly trained up so that when they get into jobs, they stay in them.

“I’m so proud of the tutors in Blackpool and was delighted that I could give them the award for successfully getting 70-79% of their students into full time work.

“The students who have completed the scheme now have great jobs that bring real value to businesses, local communities and their families, which is great, while the continual support helps them to stay in work.”

Each of the students spends two weeks in a classroom at Blackpool Council’s offices on Bickerstaffe Square, where they learn personal and jobs skills before embarking on sessions of work placements to find a suitable job for them.

Cllr Simon Blackburn, Leader of Blackpool Council, said: “It was really good to meet with Erin today and to hear that she’s proud of the work that we are doing in Blackpool to help young people with disabilities get permanent jobs.

“Every year I see the students grow into confident young people who trained up to find, and hold on to, a permanent job.

“That is testament to the students and the tutors who are involved with the programme, but also the supportive families and businesses that support the scheme and see the very real benefits that come from the job vacancies being filled by these enthusiastic and hard-working individuals.”

To find out if your business could benefit from having a Project Search student in the workplace, or to find out more about how Blackpool has embarked on Project Search, visit www.blackpool.gov.uk/projectsearch