Park House Barns
Hands on experiences and training in a Chocolate Factory and Horticulture Centre in Ampleforth, North Yorkshire
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Park House Barns provides training and placements for young adults in the heart of the North Yorkshire countryside.
Placements are in vocational and administration projects at a chocolate factory and five acre horticulture site, alongside a classic car hire business.
We support people to develop their careers, learn skills, qualifications and independent living skills in a calm and supportive environment.
Exciting, supported routes to employment
The enterprise has been designed to offer a variety of roles for different levels of ability, from crafting, decorating and packaging chocolate, working outdoors in our horticulture centre to administration and customer service.
For anyone that is unsure of what they want to do, this offers a valuable taster into different areas of work, with the chance to work to qualifications and learn new skills.
Our key objective is to secure employment for trainees either within the enterprise or within the local business community. Each person has a personalised pathway that includes working towards their chosen qualifications.
Where it Began
In 2012 Philip Bartey, Group Chief Executive of Autism Plus began discussions with Henry and Mary Scrope, parents of William who has autism. The discussions were around a shared vision of supporting people with disabilities into work. It was this vision that was presented to the Ampleforth Abbey Trust later that year, where a partnership emerged.
The Abbey Trust own a collection of redundant farm buildings, along with a five-acre field they leased to Autism Plus. In return we agreed to refurbish the buildings and bring them back into use by establishing a number of social enterprise businesses.
Chocolate Factory
Training and placements in a supported learning environment within a vibrant, busy Chocolate Factory for individuals to develop skills and work to qualifications.
Placements include:
• Food safety and hygiene
• Introduction to the world of chocolate
• Practical chocolate crafting skills such as tempering, dipping, rolling and piping
• Packing, packaging, shipping
• Administration
• Customer service
Horticulture Centre
Training and placements working outdoors offering hands-on experiences at our five acre horticulture site adjacent to the Chocolate Factory.
Placements include:
• The safe use of tools
• Propagation, growing and harvesting - micro salads, fruits, vegetables and herbs
• Preparing produce for sale
• Bee keeping
• Grounds maintenance
Classic Car Hire
In partnership with Classic Car Hire North we run Morris Minor Tours - a small fleet of classic Morris Minors for hire for the day in North Yorkshire – ideal for touring the Yorkshire Moors!
Placements include:
• Cleaning and preparing the cars for hire
• Maintenance and repairs
• Administration, payment and bookings
• Customer service
To hire a car visit Classic Car Hire North: www.classiccarhirenorth.co.uk
Meet Our Manager
Graham White is our Group Commercial Manager.
He has a particular interest in generous leadership, social enterprise and providing development opportunities. Graham has played a key role in developing Park House Barns, and has helped many individuals along the way.
In Grahams spare time he likes to keep fit, watch rugby and spending time with his family!
“It was extremely helpful having Autism Plus workplace assessment to help us in working with an individual diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, giving us a better insight of the syndrome so we could offer more appropriate support. The assessor was knowledgeable, understanding of the circumstances from a business perspective and really tried having a full overview of the situation. The report came back to us within the promised time frame and full of recommendations on how to best accommodate the individual needs, which was really thorough and supportive.”
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