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Claire Dove

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When the right employment and training services don’t exist, the social enterprise approach is to set them up yourself – as Claire Dove reveals 

Being at the sharp end of social injustice can be the catalyst for becoming a social entrepreneur. Some people are compelled to address issues facing their community. Claire Dove is one of those people.

As a result of racism and finding that she could not even get on the books of employment agencies in her home city of Liverpool back in the early seventies, Claire did what any really exceptional entrepreneur would do – and co-founded an ethical employment agency.

Several years later, she was acutely aware that many women in Merseyside were struggling to develop fulfilling careers because of a lack of training. Once more she took matters in her own hands – and in 1983 she and some other women in Liverpool created the Women's Technology and Education Centre (WTEC).

The aim was to equip low-paid or unemployed women with the skills to progress into employment in technical professions and other areas in which women are traditionally under-represented, like construction.

WTEC morphed into the award-winning Blackburne House Group – now one of the UK’s leading women's education providers – which runs a plethora of enterprises, from a business support service offering training subsidies to small businesses, to a design company, conference centre, nursery, café-bar and health space. Any profits from these social enterprises, which are often staffed by ex-students of Blackburne House Group, are fed back into the organisation to provide more opportunities.

Funding is also raised through customised accredited training contracts as well as a variety of other contracts.

Customers include Liverpool City Council, several housing associations, the Learning and Skills Council, careers service Connexions and private sector clients.

"Being a women-only organisation brought with it many challenges especially when applying for contracts; in the early days we were not taken seriously and had to work hard to earn what is now an excellent reputation, locally, regionally and nationally" says Claire, who was awarded an MBE for her work in the mid-nineties and is also chair of the Social Enterprise Coalition, the UK umbrella body for social enterprise.

Since the organisation was formed more than 20,000 women have been given opportunities they might never have dreamed of.

Jackie, now 29, was struggling to get into her chosen career of construction until she found Blackburne House. "At school they tried to get me to do hair and beauty, so I did that at college for one year, but it wasn’t for me," she says.

"Then I had my son. I was struggling and had bad landlords, I was actually on the verge of being homeless. When I tried to get on college courses, they wouldn’t accept me because of my age. I was 25. But, I really wanted a hands-on job that earned decent money for me and my son.

"I found Blackburne House online. It was easy to get on a course. I did a one-year City and Guilds in building and got a job straight away as an apprentice plasterer. I want to do a construction management course next and earn really good money. I own my own house now; I don’t know where I’d be without the organisation. I couldn’t have paid for a course like that."

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Quick Facts

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• Blackburne House was an Enterprising Solutions Award winner in 2002.
• Ofsted has placed Blackburne House in the top 10% of further education providers in the country and it was awarded Beacon Status in 2005.
• Blackburne House Group delivers more than 50 different courses in non-traditional areas of work, and has 1,000 learning opportunities available each year for women.

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