The OSW Workforce Development programme ran between 1999 and 2005. It was designed to enhance the quality of service provision for homeless people through improving the skills, knowledge and efficiency of the staff working at our partner agencies.

To this end, the OSW Workforce Development Project provided a training and development programme tailored to the needs of staff and volunteers working with OSW. Wherever possible, we also opened the programme out to the wider homelessness, education and employment sectors.

OSW's training and development programme was accessible, relevant and added value to the development of individuals working on the OSW programme by:

• Offering training free-of-charge, whenever possible;
• Ensuring participation was open to volunteers and work placement students, as well as paid staff;
• Helping to meet specialist training and accreditation needs, found within homelessness employment and training projects;
• Ensuring that non-specialist training within the programme had an employment and training slant;
• Providing time for networking and support; and
• Encouraging the sharing of knowledge and experience across the homelessness, employment and training sectors, and increasing levels of peer support.