Employment & Skills

Gateway2Healthcare

- Pre-Employment

Do you fancy becoming a healthcare assistant but feel you are lacking experience or qualifications?

Why not come on the Pre-Employment Programme.

For more information and to apply, call our Employability Team on 0800 953 0213 or email get.involved@communitygateway.co.uk who will support you through the application process.

Download more information here.

The Community Gateway Job Club provides a friendly and interactive space to look for employment, volunteering and training opportunities. You will have access to an up to date opportunities board, use of a laptop and free Wi-Fi along with advice and guidance from our Employment and Skills Team, to give you help on your journey back into work.

When: Every Wednesday, between 10am-1pm

Location: Sion Park Community Hub, Longridge Road, Preston, PR2 6RE

You will need to pre-book at the moment due to social distancing measures; you can do so by emailing EmployabilityTeam@communitygateway.co.uk or by calling 0800 953 0213 and asking for a member of the Employment and Skills Team.

Inspira have a hospitality course to help you get into employment!

You will cover: Certificate in the principles of maintaining personal wellbeing at work, award in behaviours, attitudes and attributes required for employment, award in introduction to the hospitality industry, giving customers a positive impression and more!

When : Induction on Friday 2nd July

Location: Sion Park Community Hub, 1a Longridge Road, Preston, PR2 6RE

For more information and bookings, please call 0345 658 8647

At Sion Park Community Hub, the Employment & Skills Team deliver weekly workshops to participants, covering the key employability skills required to be more job-ready such as CV writing, job searching, job applications and interview skills, as well as the more holistic life skills and confidence building, such as health & wellbeing, ready to work and budgeting.

When: Wednesday 30th June

Location: Sion Park Community Hub, 1a Longridge Road, Preston, PR2 6RE

What you will learn this week: You will be discussing healthy eating, hydration, drinking and smoking, moving more, sleeping better and mental health awareness.

This session is expected to be popular and places are limited, therefore to book a place please contact your Employment Officer.

MYGateway2Traineeship

Land Based Skills with Community Gateway Association and Myerscough College

• Are you 16-24 & currently unemployed
• Looking for an alternative type of education
• Not qualified to level 4 or above (AS/ A Level, Diploma or NVQ)

Would you like to gain experience working with horses, animals, farming, gardening, trees and shrubs or sports?

Sign up today, and you will:

• Have access to personal development and upskilling workshops
• Attend workplace visits
• Be invited to a tour with group activities at the Bilsborrow Campus
• Find out just how easy it is to travel to Myerscough College
• Be supported through the traineeship application and bursary process
• Be guaranteed an interview with Myerscough College
• Make friends and have fun along the way

To book a place, call our Employability Team on 0800 953 0213 or email get.involved@communitygateway.co.uk

Employability Day is a nationally recognised annual event that celebrates the work that employability organisations and employers do to support individuals back into work. It is an important day for us, but particularly this year! It has been a difficult twelve months for everyone, but the incredible hard work the individuals we work with through the More Positive Together and Building Better Opportunities projects to achieve their goals inspired us and we were keen to celebrate this and showcase their success. We arranged a full day of online activities to celebrate the day as well as promoting our work across social media.

We arranged two Q&A sessions to allow members of the public, Community Gateway staff and external organisations to ask us any questions about the support and opportunities we can offer, how to get involved or anything employability related.

For the individuals that we support, we arranged a session in which we invited three guest speakers from the NHS Healthcare Academy, Myerscough College and Procure Plus, to talk about their sector and the training and employment opportunities they can offer. This session was really useful and informative, and we’ve had lots of interest in the opportunities available! We also held two workshops on CV Writing and Interview Skills for individuals to gain valuable knowledge and skills to benefit them on their journey.

But it wasn’t all serious stuff, we also held a virtual quiz with some pretty good prizes up for grabs! Our super clever first place bagged a Samsung Tablet that will now support him with his employability skills!

If you want to find out more about how the Employment and Skills Team can help you, please call us on 0800 953 0213 today!

Project: Invest In Youth

Amber joined the Invest in Youth Project in February 2021. Amber had lost her part-time job at the start of the pandemic and had since been studying Plastering Level 1. Whilst Amber was enjoying her college course, she found the remote learning aspect of this difficult. Amber had lost her routine, become demotivated and was worried about her job prospects upon leaving college due to her age, lack of experience and the economy following the pandemic. Amber felt that her barriers to work also included being a female entering the construction industry.

Over her time on the project, Amber and Kelsie worked on building her confidence, routine and motivation and identifying opportunities to develop her skills and experience. Amber had little experience of applying for employment or interviews, so we turned our focus to Amber’s employability skills, such as creating a CV, completing job applications, successful job search and interview preparation.

In March 2021, we identified a job opportunity with Community Gateway as a Plastering Apprentice. As a Community Gateway tenant, Amber was keen to apply. Amber was offered an interview and we wasted no time helping her to prepare! In April 2021, Amber was offered the job and will embark on the first chapter of her construction career over the coming months. Amber has overcome her barriers to employment and is looking forward to getting stuck in!

What Amber has to say…

Since February 2021 I have begun to believe in myself more and I have gained the confidence to talk to people who I may not know. Before these Zoom calls with Kelsie, I always thought about the negative side of everything and now I think more positive about things. I never believed I would get this apprenticeship opportunity but I proved everyone wrong and made it. I couldn’t be more thankful for the help Kelsie has given me, I now believe in myself and I can’t wait to be working!

Project: More Positive Together

Tell us whether the More Positive Together project has made a positive impact to you? If so, how?

The courses I took with the More Positive Together project has really helped my confidence, helped me build up skills, and improve my CV and future cover letters boosting my chances of getting a job I will enjoy in the future.

How would you rate the CGA Employment & Skills team?

The team was my favourite part of attending the courses because they were just so friendly, welcoming, easy to talk to, and encouraging.

What would you say to others about your experience on the More Positive Together project?

I’d highly recommend going to their courses if they needed employment help, no other free courses could have a better environment.

Project: Changing Futures

Tell me a bit about yourself, why did you want to engage with the project?

Before I joined the project, I was in a dark place, feeling anxious and low. I wanted support from the project to help me build my confidence and get back into work. Socialising is something I have struggled with since being a child and I felt that engaging with the project would help me to improve my social skills.

What progress do you feel you have made since you started on the project with us?

The progress I have made since being on the project has been so beneficial. I have started volunteering at PVC. I love that I am pushing my boundaries and doing things I haven’t done in years! I have been supported to build my confidence, self – esteem and encouraged to believe that I can achieve my goals and live a better quality of life.

How have you adapted during the pandemic to continue working towards your goals?

During the pandemic, the routine was fine for me as I am used to staying in the house. However, I did struggle mentally as the progress I had been making before the last lockdown was hard to pick up again. However, I continued with online training courses and volunteering where I was able to.

What do you hope to achieve in the future?

In the future I hope to continue to better myself, get back to working and have the confidence to achieve a successful career.

Whether you have been unemployed long term or you are in work and looking for a career change, there is no doubt that job searching can seem daunting and leave you feeling that looking for work itself is a full-time job! But don’t worry, with our 10-step approach to a successful job search, you will feel prepared, in control, and ready to go!

Identify your skills and experience

Before you begin looking for jobs, identify the skills and experience you have and how you can use this to shape your CV and the type of jobs you apply for. This will save time and help you feel confident in your ability to carry out the role. You don’t have to choose jobs that directly match your current skills and experience as you will have lots of transferrable skills that can be used for a variety of roles.

Update your C.V

Now make sure your CV is up to date and ready to go. Whether the application involves a CV, cover letter, or application form; having all your information in one place will save a lot of time. You can then personalise your CV for each role you apply for. You could also create a template for a cover letter to be extra prepared!

Create an action plan

Think about the aim of your job searching: what are your goals? What are you looking for in a role or employer? Decide on your strategy and aim for job searching, this will help you to stay focused.

Choose your recruitment channels

The ways that we can search for jobs has increased in recent years, from newspapers to social media, agencies to apps. You can utilise all of these routes or you can select one or two that suit your lifestyle best.

Build your networks

You can increase your job search success by identifying opportunities to meet potential employers, advice services, and other people who are looking for work; whether this is at career fairs, employer open days, or Job Clubs. Attending such events is a good way to gain help and advice to improve your employability skills and to meet others who are in a similar situation to share tips and advice.

Do your research

Before you apply for a job, do your research into the company to make sure that you know what the role entails, the location and logistics, and whether their morals and values line up with your own. This is a good time to review your action plan and goals.

Complete application forms

Filling out application forms, particularly writing a personal statement can be daunting. It is an advantage to complete application forms to practice your skill and challenge yourself to think of examples of how you meet the person specification.

Develop your skills and experience

Consider completing some short courses to build your skills, qualifications, and knowledge. There are some brilliant, free, online, and classroom-based courses that you can attend! You could also look at completing some volunteer work or work experience to build your experience.

Stay in control of your activities

Keeping on top of your job search activities is a must. Nobody wants to be offered an interview and not be able to remember applying for the job! Stay organised and keep a log of the jobs you have applied for and the outcome of your application.

Perfect your interview skills

Lastly, when the interviews start coming, you want to be prepared. Don’t wait until the last minute to start practising! Prepare some good examples of your work and practise questions. Attend your local job club or ask a friend or family member to complete a mock interview with you.

We hope that you have found these steps useful to organising and beginning your job search journey, we wish you the very best of luck.

If you need any further support, you can contact us at EmployabilityTeam@communitygateway.co.uk or 080 953 0213.

There is no ‘right way’ to write a CV, but there are a lot of ways to get a CV wrong; and with competition for jobs ever-growing, it is important to get yours noticed! Used alongside our CV resources, this article summarises all our top tips to get you writing a great CV in no time!

It can save time to get down all of your factual information down first; including, your contact details, education history and employment history. Although you will add to this when you gain new experience or qualifications, this is the information that will stay more or less the same on your CV. You can then spend more time working on your personal statement and how you want to present your key skills and achievements. When deciding what personal information to add to your CV, you should consider what the potential employer really needs to know about you at this stage. Unless there are additional details specified on the job advert, you only need to give, your name, address, email and telephone number.

As research suggests that employers look at your CV for an average of 7 second before deciding whether you’re going to fit the role or not, you don’t want to make your CV too long! As your personal statement sits at the top of your CV, it is arguably the most important part as it is most likely to get read. This is a short summary of you and should be between 3-5 lines. You should tailor this to each role you apply for and include, an introduction of yourself, highlight why you are suitable for the role and what you can offer and a summary of your career goals.

When deciding which skills you want to highlight on your CV and for the role, go through the job description and see what skills, experience, abilities and knowledge that they are looking for and use this to tailor your CV. Match your skills and transferable skills to those required and let this be the focus. As well as your personal statement, it is fine to have a section on your CV that highlights your key skills and achievements. The relevance of hobbies and interests on a CV is a well debated topic, but again, this is neither right or wrong and comes down to personal preference. If you want to show the reader some of you personality or you feel that your interests are relevant to the role, then add a small section in about them!

Top tip: If there is an opportunity to attach a cover letter with your CV, always do this! This gives you a great opportunity to expand on why you’re a great candidate for the role and add any additional information. You can find more information about writing cover letters in our next article.

Last week we started delivery of a series of training courses, delivered for free at Sion Park Community Hub. In our first week, 4 people have successfully completed courses in Safeguarding Children and Young People and Safeguarding of Vulnerable Adults (SOVA).

Moving forward, we are also offering free training courses in the following subjects:

- Retail Skills

- Food & Safety Hygiene Level 2 Certificate

- Basic Bookkeeping

As well as delivering courses at Sion Park, we are also delivering a construction course at Preston Vocational Centre (PVC). The course has proven to be very popular and includes:

• BTEC Level 1 Health and Safety in a Construction Environment Course

• BTEC Qualification Certificate

• CSCS Online Test

• CSCS Card

This course delivers an underpinning knowledge of the health and safety regulations through a BTEC Level 1 Health and Safety in a Construction Environment Qualification. During this course, participants with also have an opportunity to use the CSCS practice software to ensure they are fully conversant with the questions and answers that may be included in the testing system. Participants will also attempt a mock paper prior to sitting the CSCS online exam.

All of our courses are currently fully booked, but keep an eye on this page for updates of future courses.