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It’s not often that we take stock to celebrate AI and all that we do, but our birthday seems as good a time as any to look back at the past year and share with you the top 6 moments that we are most proud of. Happy 22nd birthday to us!

1. THREE NEW SERVICES LAUNCH
In the past year we have launched three new Services, expanding our remit to support individuals facing barriers into education and employment. Access Data and Access Progress launched in January 2021, the former equipping low income and unemployed parents with vital data skills for the employment market, and the latter an employability service with a holistic approach for unemployed parents. The third, Access Employment, launched in May 2021, supporting people of 50+ through redundancy and back into employment.

2. IN-PERSON CLASSES START BACK
As well as Courses providing specific training and qualifications, we also offer classes and groups that support creativity and mental wellbeing. These classes were greatly missed during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, so we were pleased on 24 May 2021 to welcome our first class back in-person, where a small group of happy EnCompass students attended a Gelli printing course funded by Creative Scotland. 

3. CELEBRATE ART LAUNCHES
On a similarly creative note, Celebrate Art launched in July 2021 in partnership with Fruitmarket Gallery and with funding from Thrive Edinburgh, offering a creative outlet to our EdinMe Service young people with mental health issues. It brings together art therapy and informed service, pairing experts in the artistic field with a trauma-informed Caseworker from Access to Industry. As well as employing an Art Educator to facilitate, one of our EdinMe students is employed as a trainee to support the group.

4. FIRST ESOL COURSE
Responsively set up to meet the needs of the individuals coming through our Access Progress Service, in September 2021 we held our first ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) course. We are proud to be the only organisation offering ESOL course content that actually helps non-English speakers find and apply for jobs, perform at interview and move into the workplace independently. A future course followed this year, in January 2022.

5. ANGELA CONSTANCE MSP VISITS
On 18 November 2021 we welcomed Angela Constance MSP, Minister for Drugs Policy at The Scottish Government, to Access to Industry, as part of Careers Week. She spent time speaking to our Service users about their journeys, the individualised and pastoral approach that we take to support their recovery, and the various learning opportunities available to enable them to progress into education and employment.

6. THREE NEW ACCESS DATA COURSES LAUNCH
We end the year by launching a trio of new courses through our Access Data Service – Introduction to Digital and Data Skills; Introduction to Data Science; and Data Science with Data Security, delivered in cooperation with Edinburgh College. The aim is to equip participants with the digital and data skills essential for life, education and work.

Find out more about all the Services we offer here. And our Courses and groups here.