There’s a training centre in Sheffield that shows the simple kindness of a free breakfast club for its learners every morning.
It’s not everyone, but some of the people who pass through the doors of Momentum Recruitment on Scotland Street will be in a bad way. They could be out of employment for months, lost for structure or routine, desperately short on funds, and hoping a new qualification will get their lives back on track. It turns out the remedy to all that starts with a good breakfast.
It’s not everyone, but some of the people who pass through the doors of Momentum Recruitment on Scotland Street will be in a bad way. They could be out of employment for months, lost for structure or routine, desperately short on funds, and hoping a new qualification will get their lives back on track. It turns out the remedy to all that starts with a good breakfast.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Morning Sheffield, it's Alistair from The Sheffield Star. I'm speaking to you from outside the Momentum Training Centre in Scotland Street.
00:05 This is just a story I really wanted to do. I wrote the Ofsted report for these guys the other day and they got rated good, I should add.
00:12 This is a place that helps people get qualifications in forklift, truck driving and security and nails and
00:19 helps them maybe get into a job after a long period of unemployment or helps get their confidence back up.
00:25 But what struck me in the Ofsted report was the note that they hold a breakfast for their learners every single morning.
00:31 Something about this just really really worked for me.
00:34 I read the report and I was really struck by that. There's a place where not only are they trying to
00:39 get their qualifications going and trying to get back into employment,
00:42 but their training centre is also making sure they have one square meal every single morning.
00:47 I can think of just lots of training centres across the UK, no blame, but they don't do that.
00:52 They just haven't got the chance. But it's such a fantastic model that could be used everywhere, from training centres all across the country,
00:58 if it was properly funded.
01:00 The chance to make sure that your learners have a meal before they start studying so they're not
01:04 learning their qualifications on an empty stomach. That they have this structure first thing in the morning.
01:10 They have people to see, there's a club where they can come and speak to one another and everyone else is on the course and
01:15 just have a routine first thing in the morning.
01:17 It's such a fantastic idea to make sure people get back on their feet or to help them into a kind of structure, into a
01:23 kind of routine. I had to come down and see it for myself.
01:26 I came to speak to the people who run this breakfast first thing in the morning as well as speak to some of the
01:30 learners to hear what their experience is and what the training centre has done for them.
01:35 I think it's good for them to have a structure of getting up in the morning and having something wholesome, something healthy
01:43 to start their day.
01:45 It's good for their mind and it's also good for them to
01:49 do that with like-minded people and then they can share
01:53 experiences of why they're here.
01:56 It opens up lots of
02:00 things for them. It gets them talking, it gets them, because some people have been out of work a long time and
02:05 it gives them that routine. I get up, I go to Momentum,
02:09 I have my breakfast and that helps them on their way back into employment.
02:14 Do you enjoy the work I suppose? You get to see it each morning as well?
02:18 Yeah, it's good to see smiles on the faces. From day one sometimes it's a
02:22 challenge because I don't think they really want to be seen to be having something.
02:26 But once I think we get a little chatter going and a bit of a banter and things, they seem quite
02:34 taken to the fact that they just go to the table and help themselves.
02:37 They're quite openly there and say, "Bev, can we have some more toast?" or "Joanne, can we have some more juice?"
02:43 Or whatever they would require if we're running out.
02:46 So
02:48 we just fill up the table and then just support them where we can.
02:51 Momentum's hospitality has been great. You don't usually get the service and the hot food,
02:59 like fresh hot food as well.
03:02 Any, from my own experience, any training centre I like.
03:10 You can't complain. People are good, treated well, get heard.
03:16 It's a nice start to the morning. Everyone has the opportunity to have food in the morning.
03:23 Can you speak about the sort of difference it makes being able to just have a square meal before the lessons start?
03:28 Yeah, it's a match straight.
03:30 Player on match, you can beat.
03:32 Might not have food on your mind.
03:34 So it puts that.
03:36 We've done a good job, haven't we?
03:38 Yeah, in a great way. And particularly when they're with us for a long time, it's rewarding because we see them every day.
03:45 And their little routine with us and what they do with us,
03:50 for us, I think we know we've done the best we can to get them to their next step.
03:57 There's lots of learners that are coming through now with very low self-esteem,
04:03 anxiety issues, mental health problems.
04:06 I just think somebody who just wants to care or is just showing that they've really got some interest in that person,
04:13 from a very small way, just providing a breakfast.
04:17 I think it's quite humbling for us to see how the learners are reacting.
04:25 At the very end, when they finish the course, there are smiles on their face, thank you,
04:32 we've got lovely thank you letters.
04:36 It's just so rewarding.
04:40 Some of these people feel that nobody cares, don't they?
04:44 So for us to care, it gives them some confidence and some self-esteem, I think, and a bit of a boost.
04:53 We just want to support them, basically, and give them a good opportunity to get a career or a footing in life, basically.
05:02 Young ones today, they've left school, they've got no career direction.
05:09 A lot of them, they'll say they've not had support.
05:12 I agree, COVID has not been very supportive to them.
05:17 But here we give them an opportunity, we give them a chance to make a difference.
05:21 That's what we're about.
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