Social Enterprise The Women’s Organisation is offering a series of free online courses to help people in Liverpool city region into employment. Tony McDonough reports
Liverpool social enterprise The Women’s Organisation is offering a series of free courses to help people across the city region into employment.
Your Next Step comprises a number of courses and workshops covering topics such as developing a more positive mindset, CV creation, filling out application forms and how to prepare for an interview.
Each of the online short courses are built around helping people taking their first steps into work, whether they are just starting out or returning to employment. They aim to give people the confidence to get people into work and to realise their potential.
The award-winning organisation is launching the courses to mark National Careers Week, which has been running from March 1 to 6. The annual event brings together education and training providers, employers and people considering their future prospects.
Data released by Nomis show more than 27,000 people in the Liverpool city region were not in paid employment in September 2020, and women make up more than half of that figure. Nationally more than 340,000 redundancies were recorded between October and December 2020 and 1.56m people were employed on a temporary basis.
The Women’s Organisation is taking steps to prepare local people for life for when the current COVID-19 lockdown comes to an end. Jenny Wallwork, training and accreditation manager at The Women’s Organisation, said: “There are thousands of people not currently in paid employment in the Liverpool city region right now as the affects of COVID continue to be felt.
“Confidence is low and we must be proactive in reaching those people and reigniting their enthusiasm. What we aim to achieve is to give people the tools they need to believe in themselves, their value and take those first steps back into work, with confidence.”
Your Next Step support programme is part of Better Off Finance and aims to support people facing challenges in accessing employment, by developing their financial capability and resilience, and thereby removing barriers to employment and enabling them to become more job ready.
As part of the Building Better Opportunities initiative jointly funded by National Lottery Community Fund and European Social Fund, Better Off Finance reaches out and connects with people from across the city region which includes Liverpool, Wirral, Knowsley, Sefton, Halton and St Helens.
The programme supports disadvantaged communities within the region, who face a number of connected problems such as unemployment, poor skills, low income, poor housing, high crime environments, and poor health.