Jobs, Training and Skills

The New East Manchester Economic Programme is a progressive package of support designed to reduce worklessness and increase job creation by working with NEM residents and the local business community to achieve sustainable growth in the economy.

The programme, which has been in place for six years, has played a major role in the regeneration of East Manchester and in tackling economic inactivity in the area.  Significant progress has been made over the last six years due to the well established range of support through the economic programme projects that provide bespoke services to both residents seeking employment and employers who are looking to recruit staff with the appropriate skills and attitudes.  
                                                                              

“Experience”, the East Manchester Volunteering project

This project supports some of the East Manchester residents who are furthest away from the labour market with the ultimate aim of getting them back into work or training. It will engage and support local adults to become involved in volunteering as well as assisting local employers/organisations from the statutory, voluntary and private sectors to develop volunteering policies and provide volunteering opportunities.

The project provides opportunities for adults wishing to volunteer by developing the capacity of local employers and organisations to support volunteers and matching individuals to the range of opportunities available. The service is designed to ensure those who are harder to reach or socially excluded feel able to access these opportunities. The project will also contribute to improving opportunities for residents who are currently accessing some of the employability based projects in the area such as Skills for Life and Stepping Stones.  

Volunteering is valuable in preparing someone for work who has been economically inactive for a long period of time and the project will provide opportunities for economically inactive residents and those harder to reach (for example ex offenders and people with disabilities).

Volunteers will build self esteem and confidence, gain personal and professional progression through activity that is tailored to meet their needs and will act as a springboard into employment, further training or education. Organisations will be supported to develop volunteering policies and programmes and be able to access a skilled bank of adult volunteers to meet demand.

Contact John Aitken Tel: 223 3418

Skills For Life

The Skills for Life in East Manchester programme supports a wide range of provision designed to raise the level of adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL, (English for Speakers of Other Languages), across East Manchester .  The project has the following objectives to be delivered by 2010:

1) The continuation and mainstreaming of the following initiatives:

  • the Home Tuition Project
  • tuition for adult residents for whom mainstream learning provision is neither appropriate nor accessible
  • the financial literacy programme
  • support for dyslexic adults

2) New developments will include:

  • provision for employees of local companies
  • sustaining the Skills for Life practitioners’ forum and current partnership arrangements
  • work to strengthen strategic approaches to Skills for Life in East Manchester
  • a Learners’ Forum to advise on developments and on-going needs
  • links with self-employment and entrepreneurs
  • a curriculum offer that integrates vocational, employability, communication skills, and basic skills
  • a longitudinal study to track the work journeys of participants to identify success factors and barriers.
  • links to the National Probation Service and Youth Offending Teams in order to develop and pilot targeted interventions for offenders serving sentences in the community. 
  • work with employers to provide English language support packages for their migrant worker employees.  

Contact: Liz Jacobs 0161 223 1155

Financial Inclusion

Financial exclusion is defined as a lack of access to most, or all, of the range of financial services enjoyed by the majority of the adult population.  In this project we are working to address the six elements of financial exclusion: no savings, no assets, no insurance, no access to money advice, no affordable credit, and no bank account. The project addresses financial exclusion as a barrier to employment and has a focus on supporting local people into work as a means of raising incomes within the area of East Manchester.

The financial inclusion team addresses these issues primarily, through three projects:

  • One to one money advice to residents, delivered by the Money Mentors service.  This service supports residents with debt, welfare rights and consumer rights advice and is also proactive, supporting residents before they get into difficulties
  • Specialist money advice by supporting residents with complex debt cases
  • Financial literacy, through delivering financial education modules with embedded basic skills to residents.  This supports the advice given in the other roles and helps residents to be able to make informed independent financial choices and avoid future problems

The project as a whole develops money savings and money information events to give residents fun ideas on how to make money go further but still have a good time.  For example, ‘Chic on the Cheap’, how to look good on a budget.  We produce regular money savings fact sheets. We will be developing a volunteer programme and furthering partnership arrangements across all sectors to reduce financial exclusion in the area.

 Contact: Liz Jacobs 0161 223 1155

Regeneration Apprenticeships

This project was developed to give a small number of residents the opportunity to be employed as Regeneration Apprentices within the core staff team. The project takes them through a structured, accredited training programme combined with work based experiencein order to enable them gain skills, practical knowledge and relevant qualifications which provide a good grounding in regeneration practice and opens up related jobs.The project also employs a Training and Development Co-ordinator who has management responsibilities for the team, providing support and identifying and developing relevant qualifications.

Whilst on the project, the Regeneration Apprentices work towards the newly developed vocational access to Higher Education qualification “Working in the Community”.  This qualification has been developed in partnership with the University of Salford and The Open College Network North West who for some time have recognised that existing qualifications in regeneration do not reflect the nature of many programmes and in particular the community-led approach to regeneration.

Whilst on placement, the majority of the work involves the assistants working alongside NEM / NDC Programme Managers to enhance their work based learning. The Co-ordinator plans short-term placements across the thematic areas during the first year, followed by a specialised placement in the second year. These provide an overall understanding of the teams’ activities, a thorough knowledge of programme wide management arrangements (such as finance and evaluation), thematic programme and project activity and give an insight into the national context of regeneration initiatives and programmes.

The project has led the way in developing access routes to higher education and to careers in regeneration and a growing number of organisations are now looking to replicate parts of the scheme. In Southampton they are using a similar approach to provide qualifications for 12 volunteer members of their NDC board who will undertake the Level 2 qualification before moving on to a foundation degree. In Sunderland a scheme has been implemented which  will train two apprentices and includes placements at a range of external organisations the apprentices will work towards a certificate in regeneration qualification with the University of Northumbria, a similar scheme is being developed in Oldham.

Recently the scheme has sparked a growing interest in accrediting community work – for example Manchester Adult Education Service is now running the Level 2 course with many community volunteers who would otherwise receive no formal recognition of their achievement. Tameside College has a similar group of learners working towards Level 3 and several Universities have now accepted the qualifications as satisfying their admission criteria for foundation degrees, not only in neighbourhood renewal but in related areas such as community studies and housing.

Julia Lucas Director of Housing & Urban Studies at Salford University has said that….

“The project pioneered a route into further and higher education for community activists engaged in regeneration at a point where there was no clarity in provision or progression.  It provides a model for others in flexible and tailored provision with the learner at the centre. The value the organisation has placed on the trainees and their education is exemplary. It has involved an investment of time and resources which demonstrates an extraordinary level of commitment”.

Contact: Gary Lamb 0161 223 1155

Enhanced Job Brokerage

This project supports New East Manchester area residents to secure employment by matching them with the job opportunities that are available in the area and across the City. 

The service offers vacancy matching, initial assessments, training needs analysis, occupational sector awareness, signposting, interview preparation, post-employment support and assistance to gain job related qualifications through the Train to Gain programme.

The project delivery team consists of employment and training consultants, Recruitment and Placement Consultants (RPCs) and Guidance Promotion workers. 

The Guidance Promotion Workers have been recruited as trainee Recruitment and Placement Officers from the local community and are training towards an NVQ Level 3 in Information, Advice and Guidance.  It is their job to engage with the local community, generate interest and to be the first point of call to gather all the necessary information about the individual and their interests.  That individual will then be signposted on to the Job Brokerage or appropriate localised provision, a decision based upon the information gathered. The Guidance Promotion Workers each have RPC mentors who assist in their training and development.

In conjunction with local Jobcentre Plus staff, the main target group is residents who are 0 to 6 months unemployed for 18-24 year olds and up to 18 months unemployed residents over 25 years old for whom there are currently no mainstream support services via Job Centre Plus (JCP).  

There are currently 300 residents signing on to claim JSA every month on average.  A joint New East Manchester and Jobcentre Plus action plan has been developed which aims to ensure that a minimum of 50% of new JSA claimants are referred directly to the Job Brokerage team.  By encouraging this group to utilise the services of the Job Brokerage team, it is expected that residents will secure employment before they reach the 6 months unemployed stage.

For Information contact Kathryn Hett (Project Manager) Tel: 08450 740 121

NEM Construction Centre

The Manchester Construction Skills Centre will be located in East Manchester with the primary purpose being to meet the demand for skills from the construction sector in the Manchester sub-region. This will be achieved by providing demand-led training and employment support to local residents to enable them to access employment in the construction sector and to gain qualifications that will support their career development and sustain employment.

The construction sector continues to experience skills shortages and there are gaps between the skills which East Manchester residents possess and those required by the sector.  Given the scale of construction-related regeneration, which will take place in East Manchester in the future, there is a clear need to maximise local employment benefit from this investment. Employment opportunities will still be generated by a number of key, local developments, including, the Miles Platting Private Finance Initiative (PFI). 

The skills centre training places will be aimed predominantly at local residents, young people and adults wishing to up skill, retrain or enter a career in the construction industry, but in particular unemployed adults (JSA claimants), economically inactive residents (IB & IS claimants), returners to the labour market, job changers/those in transient employment, those under threat of redundancy, women and ethnic minorities. There is an opportunity to work with the Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET) group but due to the restrictions around having adult and young people in the same environment, there will be a limited programme available to under 16s. The programme is aimed at the trainees being work ready and at present there are some issues around the high cost of employer liability insurance for under 18s, therefore the progression route for the group would be through the apprenticeship route.

Meeting the needs of developers and contractors operating in the area has been the basis for establishing the training centre. The links with the Developers’ forum and the Housing Investment Options framework contractor and the success of the General Construction Operative course have already proven that the model will work. By establishing the skills needs early enough, the centre can be flexible and respond to the demand for specific trade areas.

Contact: Mike Cunliffe Tel: 0161 223 1155

Rapid Response

This project addresses the recruitment and skills needs of existing employers/sectors or companies moving into the area.  Training and recruitment programmes will be designed with local partners and in conjunction with employers to ensure that local people have the skills that businesses need.  The project has historically been successful in providing bespoke recruitment solutions for a number of key employers in the area including Asda, CXR, Next and Thomas Storey.

In addition to the support for businesses and the tailoring of recruitment support, the project also provides funding for local residents to undertake training that is not available or funded through the mainstream.  Funding will only be utilised when mainstream funds from Job Centre Plus and Learning and Skills Council (LSC) funds are unable to be utilised.

In terms of local benefit, the funding will provide the opportunity to deliver a rapid response with the ability to support multiple vacancies arising from one employer/sector or a major development or investment.  It also means that provision can be tailored to a specific group of vacancies or specifically to the employer’s needs. 

With the project being delivered through the NEM team it enables the full co-ordination of the activity and the ability to draw in other projects and services as required e.g. Job Centre Plus, Connexions, LSC, Voluntary and Community Sector Enhanced Job Brokerage project.

Contact: Mike Cunliffe Tel: 0161 223 1155

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