Centre Manager: Shelley Carter

The location of the present day Training Centre stems from 1891 when William Booth, the founder of The Salvation Army, established the Farm Colony here at Hadleigh.  The intention was to help the less fortunate people, primarily from the east end of London, to regain their self respect and equip them with skills to enable them to enter employment.

The training programme unfortunately was closed in the 1970’s due to the decline in the number of recruits and less labour intensive farming.

The vision of William Booth was given a new lease of life in 1990, when the then International Leader of The Salvation Army, General Eva Burrows, re-opened the Training Centre in an attempt to tackle some of the problems brought about by unemployment.

During the past sixteen years in which the centre has been in operation the programme has been adjusted to meet the needs of the client groups and respond to the changes in policies regarding funding.

This past year has, once again, been an encouraging one with enquires for places exceeding vacancies.

Referrals continue to arrive from Social Services, either Essex County Council or Southend on Sea Borough council.  Unfortunately December saw the end of our European Social Fund money and concerns were voiced to Essex County Council about the clients that were attending the centre through this funding and whether they would be able to still attend.  Essex County Council saw the benefit of their clients accessing the training programme and has taken over the funding for these clients.

We also received a large number of referrals from our contract with Jobcentre Plus and successfully managed to place a number of clients into employment.  This year saw us being awarded a further year’s extension to our contract and also receiving Jobcentre Plus Provider Accreditation.

This year has been a very successful one for us in the business arena too.  In October we attended the Evening Echo Southend Business Awards gala dinner where it was announced that we were the winners in the Community Category.

The new extension and development of the existing Training Centre moved nearer to becoming reality this year by us receiving planning permission for the alterations to the existing building.  This is a long awaited redevelopment and when completed will provide us with first class facilities to enable us to continue with the first class work that takes place under the umbrella of Hadleigh Training Centre.

However, none of this work or the recognition we have received from the business community would not be possible without the dedication and commitment of each member of staff and for this I say a very big thank you.  For some it has meant working beyond the normal call of duty and this is very much appreciated.