ELATT inspires people to achieve the skills they need to flourish in life and work

ELATT was established as a charity and a company limited by guarantee in 1984 to provide vocational IT training to improve opportunities for local unemployed adults in the City Fringe and specifically in Hackney and Tower Hamlets.

ELATT targets its service and markets itself to people who experience barriers to the labour market. Regardless of changes in funding over these years, ELATT has provided a continuity of service for this community and has trained over 3,800 local people in a supportive training environment, working with their commitment and energy to provide opportunities for vocational qualifications, work experience, progression on to further or higher education and, ultimately, employment. The service that we offer has developed and grown with the differing needs of its target client group.

Click here to visit ELATT's webiste.

ELATT provides training in using a personal computer, networking computers, developing software and websites and in English for speakers of other languages (ESOL).

All courses are supported with embedded and additional basic skills and learners are supported by Learning and Work Advisers who provide advice and guidance to learners and help learners to progress at the end of their course into work or further learning.

We work with around 300 people a year. Our learners are generally over 19 and unemployed living in Hackney or Tower Hamlets. These boroughs are the two most deprived boroughs in the UK with the highest rates of unemployment and some of the highest rates of low literacy and low numeracy skills.

Our learners face multiple barriers to learning and work. Many have been away from the workplace for many years, sapping morale and undermining confidence and self esteem. Some come from families where no-one has worked for generations, caught in a culture of worklessness of inadequacy, dependence, benefits traps, disillusion and despondency. Many have failed in learning before and been told that they will continue to fail. But our learners continue to want to learn and they want to work.

ELATT is an innovative and creative provider of high quality learning provision. Our provision has been recently inspected by ALI/OfSted and found to be satisfactory with good leadership and management and good teaching of basic skills. Our provision enables people to come from no experience of computers to be a Cisco engineer in just over a year, for free. We help people find work and find the skills to get and keep work. Our services transform people’s lives providing them with skills and confidence to take control.

Strategic Consultant/Facilitator

ELATT adopted a Strategic Plan entitled “A Working Vision” in April 2005. It is designed to cover the period 2005 to 2010. We now wish to review the Strategic Plan to determine:

·         What has been achieved

·         Which targets that have not been achieved are relevant and which are no longer relevant.

·         Establishing our targets for the next three years

We are seeking a facilitator to work with groups of staff and/or trustees to discuss specific elements of the Strategy, tease out issues and assist in clarifying a forward plan.

Much has changed in the intervening two years.

·         First and foremost has been the advent of the Leitch Report into Skills in the UK emphasising the need for more “demand led” skills provision.

·         At the same time our primary funder, the LSC, has restructured and established a regional presence in London.

·         The Mayor of London has adopted new powers to influence skills in London and

·         the International Olympic Committee has awarded the 2012 Olympics to east London.

ELATT has also changed in terms of delivery, structure and operations.

Senior Management Team meetings to discuss strategic progress and plans are starting very soon (8 February 2007) and we expect to complete the project of review by the end of May. There is a Trustee away day booked for mid May.

The current strategy covers 6 main areas two of which subdivide (Strategy: Finance, Product, Marketing, Organisation: Governance, Structure, Facilities Architecture, HR Architecture, Process and Culture)

The Senior Management Team will meet to discuss each of these elements for half a day between 8 February and middle of May. Elements of the discussion will be delegated for individual managers to discuss further with their teams before drafting a revised outline strategy for each of the 9 areas.

VSF members wishing to explore this opportunity would meet with a selection of trustees and senior managers in advance of starting the project.

We expect the full Strategic Review will result in further opportunities to assist us. However, all of these could be initiated before completion of the Full Strategic Review:

·         Finance Strategy
Working with our fully qualified Finance Director and Chief Executive to develop the detail of a Finance Strategy to establish the procedures, business and controls to secure our future going forward.

·         Marketing Strategy
Working with our Business Development Director and Chief Executive to develop a detailed Marketing Strategy, identifying audiences, key messages and branding.

·         Mergers and acquisitions
ELATT has a strong business that needs to grow to survive, we are keen to develop alliances and partnerships that can develop into mergers in order to establish a stronger organisation. We need assistance in how to achieve this.

·         Ongoing legal advice
We have a particular need for a pro bono employment law advice service to assist our managers in applying our legal obligations in managing our staff. We could also use legal and practical advice around compliance with health and safety, data protection, and discrimination.