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Sue Williams Returning to work Gloucester Works improves job opportunities for local resident In the run up to Christmas one Gloucester woman is delighted to be back in employment with support from the new City Employment and Skills Plan – called Gloucester Works, which was launched recently. Gloucester Works is a unique initiative managed by Gloucestershire First in collaboration with other City partners, designed to meet the jobs and skills needs of workers and local employers. Sue Williams (58) a grandmother of two from Podsmead is starting a new job this week after she was recently made redundant. Sue was working as an accounts administrative supervisor at a Cheltenham firm, where she had been for more than 18 years until it relocated its local base and made 10 people redundant. Sue visited the Job Centre and was given information about Gloucester Works. She was subsequently met by Kim Jolliffe, a Community Area Co-ordinator for Gloucester Works who referred her to the Gateway project for an individual assessment of her aspirations and opportunities. A week later an administrative position became available at Prospect, the organisation that manages the Gateway, for Gloucester Works and after her impressive first meeting Sue was invited to attend a full job interview for a front of house role, which she started this week. Says Sue, 'I was so impressed with the whole process; it was so quick and efficient. I was worried that my age would be a problem, but they showed me that it wasn't and that I had lots of opportunities. 'If I hadn't gone to the job centre, they wouldn't have passed me the Gloucester Works details and this wouldn't have happened. 'I was looking for a new challenge and maybe a career change and I got one. It really worked for me.' Kim Jolliffe, Team Leader at Gloucester Works says; "Sue's story is one of a number of real situations where local people have been able to retrain, or up-skill to re-enter the job market with support from the Gloucester Works programme. “The Gloucester Works Team is working hard to make sure that in the current economic climate, local people have the best chance of gaining employment or retraining for a career change as well as benefiting from any future growth in the job market which will be stimulated by Gloucester's ongoing regeneration." Since August, a total of 383 unemployed people from Gloucester have attended interviews with Gloucester Works of which 196 have been referred to the Gateway project for further assessment. A breakdown of the ages of those who have attended Gloucester Works interviews is as follows:
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| For more information on how Gloucester Works can help you please contact the team on 0800 002 9838 or e-mail info@gloucesterworks.co.uk |
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