EVJ Aspire

💛 IF YOU’RE NEW HERE… 💛

EVJ Aspire CIC is a not-for-profit Alternative Provision and specialist Post-16 provision supporting young people aged 14–19 across Tameside and Greater Manchester.

We specialise in working with young people who have faced barriers within mainstream education and may benefit from a smaller, more nurturing and vocational approach to learning.

Our vocational pathways include:

💇‍♀️ Hair & Beauty
🔨 Construction & Trade Skills
🐴 Animal Care - delivered at a working farm in Saddleworth

Alongside qualifications, we focus heavily on confidence, relationships, life skills, employability and helping young people re-engage with education and recognise what they’re capable of.

We support young people with a range of needs, including those with SEND and EHCPs, working alongside schools, families and local authorities to create an individualised programme.

💛 Small groups.
💛 Practical learning.
💛 Recognised qualifications.
💛 A different environment in which to thrive.

If you’re a parent, carer, school or professional and would like to know more about our provision, please send us a message.

💗 Our students have planned their first ever open event and we’d LOVE you to come and support them! 💗

We’ve had such an exciting first week back at EVJ Aspire, and our young people have been very busy planning something special.

Our students, aged 14 - 18, have worked across different groups to create our very first Wear it Pink Day in support of Breast Cancer Now. 🎀

And when we say they’ve planned it, we really mean they’ve planned it!

They’ve decided which hair and beauty treatments they’d like to offer, worked out their costs and budgets, planned the event together and created a brief for the advertising.

Our Digital Skills students then took over, turning their ideas into the poster you can see here - with plenty of discussion and differing opinions along the way! 😂

Now they get to do the exciting (and slightly nerve-racking!) part - open the doors and welcome you all in.

For some of our young people, serving members of the public is a huge step. It means putting into practice the skills they’ve been working hard to develop, communicating with people they don’t know, working as a team and having the confidence to show others what they’re capable of.

So we’d absolutely love our friends, families, parents and the wider Tameside community to get behind them. 💗

📅 Wednesday 21st October
⏰ 10:30am–2:30pm
📍 EVJ Aspire CIC, 190 Stamford Street, Ashton-under-Lyne, OL6 7LR

We have a little refresh of some of our space at EVJ Aspire, adding a makeup station.

We are so excited to welcome back some of our regular students who have now moved up to post 16 education and our new pre 16 cohort!

There’s still lots going on behind the scenes, including the final tweaks to our second site offering construction skills.

If you would like to hear more about the education we provide, please do not hesitate to reach out!

😍 ADVANCED COLOUR CORRECTION 😍

Amazing work by our students Caitlin and Ruby today, who worked with various levels of bleach to lift the roots and previous banding, to an even level. To then apply Abbi’s vibrant colours!

This was a mix of foiling and root application, and the key was precision and speed, to not compromise the condition of the rest of the hair.

We are really looking forward to Caitlin and Ruby joining us with the rest of their cohort for Post-16 to create more amazing colours like this!

🌸 IT’S BEEN A HOT MINUTE 🌸

For the last few weeks, some of our students have been training in preparation to climb Mount Snowdon this summer in memory of their friend Maisie, and to raise funds for Maisie Moo’s Mission.

Rain or shine, they have been out hiking with smiles on their faces! Even suggesting that some of the hikes haven’t been challenging enough!

These sessions have supported their health and wellbeing, increased their confidence and shown them what it means to work as part of a team, supporting one another. And each week another young person joins our Snowdon Team!!

Can we make it to the top of Snowdon? I’m sure we can!!

We’re so proud of our young people 💛

Yesterday, some of our students had their first day working in our salon, putting their hairdressing and customer service skills into practice with real clients.

This was a big step for them and took a lot of confidence but they did amazing!

We’ve already had models who want to rebook, and the feedback has been lovely. Not just about the hair, but also how welcoming and polite the students were.

These moments are what it’s all about…building confidence, learning real skills and helping young people believe in themselves again.

Well done girls, you smashed it 👏

💼 Careers advice & job support at EVJ Aspire 💼

Every Wednesday, we’re joined by Laura from Onward Homes, who gives her time to support young people with their next steps.

If you’re aged 16–24 and not currently in education, employment or training, you can come along from 10am and take part in:✔️ Group workshops✔️ 1:1 support✔️ Help with CVs and job applications✔️ Advice on getting into work or college

Whether you’re unsure what to do next or just need a bit of guidance, these sessions are a great place to start.

This is part of our Safe To Soar project, funded by Tameside Council and GMCA.

📩 Message us to find out more or book a place