Keeping Beneficiary Information was one of my biggest projects when the college I work for was awarded ESF Contracts.

The first step was to go through the final claim of the previous year, and work out what information we would have to produce at the end of the contract year.  From this, you can start a list of what you need to record.  It might look something like this:

          PERSONAL INFO:
               Name
               Address
               Date of Birth
               NI Number
               Sex

          STATISTICAL
               Period of Unemployment
               Ethnic Origin
               Disabilities
               Language Needs
               Literacy/Numeracy
               Lone Parent
               Ex-Offender
               Homeless
               Drug Addiction

Colour Code you ESF Paper-work

After you have worked out what information you need, you need to collect it from the beneficiaries.  Produce forms that will collect all the information you will need, and to make collating easier, choose one colour for your ESF forms that you do not use for anything else.

Once you have all of the information on paper, the easiest way to manage it is in a computerised database  I used Microsoft Access 97 and found I could produce nearly all of the beneficiary information needed.

If you would like more information about the Beneficiary Database I have developed, drop me an email with your details.  See "Contact Us" for more information about the database and other services.