Jobworks students get skills for jobs

17 February 2010

Students were celebrating the completion of their Introduction to Care programme today, a specially designed course to help people get the right skills and qualifications to get back into work.

Students who completed the skills for jobs course at Kendal College: Left to right: Dawn Dawson, Charlotte Rose, Dawn Richardson, Tutor Jo Kendall, Mandy Alderson, Ken Stephens, Steven Fairhurst, John Capstick, Steven Troughton, Evelyn Reid, course coordinator Barbara Copeland, and at the front, Tony Earl, Peter Mullin and Kevin Aldridge.

Students took a number of different courses designed to prepare them for employment including Basic Food Safety, Emergency First Aid, Health and Safety, Manual Handling and Literacy, as well as job hunting and CV writing skills.

Students were referred to the college from JobCentre Plus, Nextstep and Crea, with the intention of providing them with a package of pre-employment training, designed to provide them with the right skills to obtain jobs available locally. NHS Academy through Skills for Health also supported this programme by running some of the courses and helping students with employment opportunities.

Four students have already had interviews this week and are currently awaiting the outcomes, three are getting involved in voluntary work, whilst Charlotte is signing up to a full-time access course starting in September, with the intention of becoming a fully qualified nurse.

Course coordinator, Barbara Copeland Said: "This is the first course of its kind that we have run at the college and it's been exciting to see people with such a wide range of backgrounds work together and develop new skills which will support them in gaining employment in the care sector.

"We wish them all the best in their future careers and I am sure that we will be seeing some of them again for further training."

Kendal College is running further Introductory programmes in hospitality and retail during February and March, specifically tailored for those who are unemployed, as well as a Jobs Fair on the 4th March at the college's main site on Milnthorpe Road.

For further information or to join on of these programmes contact Barbara Copeland, either by telephoning 01539 814752 or emailling barbara.copeland@kendal.ac.uk

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