Last updated at 10:20, Wednesday, 18 July 2012

A LOCAL enterprise partnership is successfully supporting unemployed people and helping them gain jobs.

Title
Author
Copyright

Description

Jamie Martin was struggling to find work despite being a product design graduate.

The 22-year-old, of Barrow, found employers wanted experience with certain types of software.

Mr Martin was advised to contact Furness Enterprise and the team were quickly able to help.

He was able to benefit from the DWP Flexible Support Fund programme, run through Furness Enterprise in partnership with Jobcentre Plus.

Furness Enterprise funded a training course in advanced parts modelling for Mr Martin, where he impressed his tutors.

His ability to demonstrate newly developed skills helped him secure a job just a few weeks later with Playdale in Haverthwaite.

A family-run business that has been manufacturing playground equipment and building playgrounds for more than 30 years, it has supplied more than 16,000 playgrounds across the UK, Ireland and worldwide, including the local play areas at Barrow Park, Dalton Leisure Centre and Biggar Bank.

Mr Martin has been working as a playground designer at the company for two-and-half months.

He said: “It’s brilliant, I’m really enjoying it. It’s a great company to work for, not many companies have been taking on new people like they have.”

Thanking Furness Enterprise, Mr Martin, said: “They were really good. I went for a meeting at about 4.30pm on a Friday afternoon, there was course starting on the Monday, and in half-an-hour they had made all the arrangements for me to attend the course. It was really fast, I was really impressed. I’m very grateful to them.

“I could show employers I was actively updating my skills and knowledge.”

The Flexible Support Fund offered a £81,000 pot for Furness Enterprise to be able to fund a variety of training and certification for out-of-work clients, providing an invaluable opportunity to boost their skills and qualifications and improve their job prospects.

Furness Enterprise said the range of training included offshore safety courses, security industry training and plant operations training.

There were 241 people registered for the programme, all pre-Work Programme, referred by Jobcentre Plus. To date – thanks to training they would not otherwise have been able to access – 78 of these have confirmed they have started work.

An example was the Roads and Street Works Basic Training which Furness Enterprise arranged for Barrow Training Partnership to run for seven of the clients. They all completed a one-week course, followed by a four-week placement. Four of the seven went straight into full time employment following the work placement. The others now have skills and experience which will significantly enhance their prospects.

Ben Montague, the jobs and employment team leader at Furness Enterprise said Keith Dymond, of Barrow Training Partnership, was a fantastic help to it and the clients, putting together the course and arranging the work-placements.

Mr Montague said the role of Jobcentre Plus in enabling Furness Enterprise to assist so many people into work and training is hugely important.

He said: “Their advisors kept a steady flow of referrals coming to us throughout the programme; their Labour Market Research team are brilliant for providing us with the information and resources we need; and the overall management of the programme has been first-class, giving all the guidance we need along with the flexibility to deliver the programme in the most effective manner. The Jobcentre Plus district manager recently stated that: ‘Furness Enterprise is the main partner for delivery of added value to Jobcentre Plus services in Barrow.’

“The Flexible Support Fund grant allowed Furness Enterprise to supplement our ongoing support activities with a much-needed financial boost, enabling significant numbers of unemployed residents to access the training they needed to make the step back into employment. The number of people that have gone into work in a relatively short period of time is fantastic, and is testament to the Furness Enterprise Job Access team’s hard work and expertise.”

Furness Enterprise continues to run successful job access activities.

Return To Work has, since July 2010, helped 150 people facing significant barriers to employment. Of those 150 people, 63 gained employment after receiving support and assistance in overcoming the barriers.

Mr Montague said: “This success is significant in an area where the level of ESA claims is significantly higher than the national average. Nicola Dunn has co-ordinated the Return To Work project with fantastic success since 2008 and continues to provide the same one-to-one support to new and existing customers.”

The Work Shop is an extremely popular and well-used service based in the Neighbourhood Management office in Dalton Road.

The town centre drop-in facility is ideal for many workless individuals and enables them to gain access to job vacancies, job search facilities and valuable information, advice and guidance from the experienced, knowledgeable and friendly advisers. Christine Tickle, Joanne Nixon, Jean Asbury and Helen Thomas have all assisted countless individuals towards gaining work in a difficult employment market.

First published at 10:11, Wednesday, 18 July 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk