Project Search is a work-based programme designed to support young people with additional support needs make the next step into permanent employment. The programme is designed to, as best as possible, mimic the workplace and give the students (our interns) the most realistic real world, work-based experience as possible. At Culzean Castle we have been running since 2018 and are now into our fourth year of students. As with everything in the world right now the Covid 19 pandemic has had a huge impact on our programme.
The new intake started with us in February, but like many education courses we were totally online initially. As the lockdown restrictions started to ease; we were incredibly fortunate to get our new cohort back out to Culzean and start their first full work rotation. Keeping the new regulations in mind we did a little bit of jiggling with having half out at a time and entirely working outdoors with the Ranger and Gardens teams.
Our new crew have been absolutely outstanding with nothing fazing them; they got stuck straight in to working hard and formed a tight knit unit. We have had the opportunity to run a couple of projects getting jobs done on site that have had to take a back seat over recent years. For the group to see these projects from start to finish has been a really valuable opportunity, they got immediate feedback from staff on site as well as being able to see the progress they were making with the work.
First up was a project to create a path to follow off one of the trails and around the Fire Pond above the deer park at Culzean. The interns worked to scrape away the top level of vegetation and then cover the new exposed ground with hardcore. The task seems simple enough but requires a fair bit of effort to get the old vegetation away and the new hardcore shovelled into place. However, the crew took it in their stride and in a couple of weeks, through working in small teams, had created a new path that will allow visitors to come off the beaten trail and explore another bit of the country park.
Following on from this we were tasked with tidying up the area that surrounds the Gas House down by one of the beaches in Culzean. This area sees many visitors walking along the paths and on and off the beach and is currently home to a Kraken that was installed by a local artist. Making this area look presentable was a job our interns took on with immense pride. They cleared olds walls and platforms of moss and vegetation, cleaned out a drainage channel to help expose some magnificent Victorian engineering and replaced hardcore to form a level surface for visitors to walk on.
Our next challenge, which we have only just begun work on, is to help restore the garden area around the Stables Coffee Shop. Something we are really looking forward to seeing come to fruition check back with us for more updates and follow our progress on Twitter @projsearchsayr and Facebook – Project Search South Ayrshire
