The IEP, in collaboration with Serco, are committed to Delivering Excellence in Employability Practice. Project DEEP aims to enhance the reputation and effectiveness of employability practice by demonstrating excellence in delivery, identifying and implementing best practice, developing workforce capabilities, fostering partnerships, and influencing policy and commissioning decisions.
The Project commenced on 1st June 2024 and will run for 2 years. We are pleased to have Matt Ambrose FIEP on board as Project Manager Consultant for the duration of Project DEEP.
Matt has worked in employability and related fields including offender rehabilitation, National Citizen Service – for 17 years, and has worked with many large providers across a range of contracts. Having started in operational practice, Matt has been working in a variety of change and improvement roles for 10 years, including 6 years running his own company specialising in performance improvement and contract mobilisation within the sector. Matt is also an IEP Fellow and has a great understanding of the challenges facing Restart providers and the industry more broadly.
“I am passionate about improving the industry and defining / sharing best practice for the benefit of all Participants, no matter the scheme or provider. This project allows us to really test what works in real delivery environments, creating a best-practice evidence base which can be shared across IEP partners,” said Matt.
Matt said time is a key challenge of delivering this project.
“There is so much to do and so many areas where we feel like we can help to improve delivery; it’s a matter of trying to prioritise those to have the biggest impact as soon as possible. We’ve hit the ground running though, and there are already a number of projects underway.”
Primarily, participants across all schemes will benefit from enhancing service delivery across the sector, said Matt.
“But we are also committed to ensuring learnings can be shared which also benefit practitioners by ensuring they are in well-structured, fulfilling roles.
“The IEP’s Centre for Employability Excellence does great work connecting researchers with policymakers to better inform commissioning strategies, but there is a huge opportunity to also develop an evidence base for improving operational delivery through structured test and learn projects. This collaboration is an industry first and we’re really exciting to see how it develops.”
Andy Bowie, Director at Serco, said: “I am personally delighted at the fact that we are partnering with such a prestigious organisation to continue our work in improving the services that we offer to our citizens.
“Developing our Centre of Excellence in conjunction with the IEP’s global Centre of Employability Excellence will ensure that we are providing a test and learn environment to trial some global initiatives and enhance the journey of our job coaches and our participants.”
