Pictured above: Pertemps People Development Group's outreach
team, based in Harborne, Birmingham, celebrate the news that more
than 100 unemployed people secured jobs in just one week under the
Working Neighbourhoods Fund
More than 100 unemployed people's lives were transformed in just
one week when they secured new jobs and work placements thanks to
support from an ambitious Birmingham initiative.
Their success was down to their own determination to succeed and
the support of Pertemps People Development Group (PPDG) through the
£115m Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) initiative. WNF is a
partnership between Be Birmingham, Jobcentre Plus, Birmingham City
Council, and the SFA.
The amazing milestone figure of 102 PPDG customers finding
employment, achieved in seven days at the end of September, brings
the total number of city residents who have been helped into
employment opportunity through WNF to 1,100 since the start of the
year.
PPDG chief executive officer Colin Birchall said: "Pertemps
People Development Group has enjoyed a truly stunning week,
securing a combined total of 102 job and Intermediate Labour Market
(ILM) outcomes.
"The results were recorded by our Birmingham-based Working
Neighbourhoods Fund team and are a record for the programme which
began in January of this year. They represent the reward for nine
months of intensive community engagement, working closely with
unemployed people in some of the most disadvantaged communities in
the city."
Councillor Tim Huxtable, cabinet member for transportation and
regeneration, Birmingham City Council, represents the Bournville
ward which includes areas of high unemployment such as the
Masefield estate, where PPDG delivers outreach services.
He said: "To help more than 100 people escape their ordeal
of worklessness and get into sustainable employment in just one
week is a superb achievement. It demonstrates that, given the
right support and guidance, the long-term unemployed can secure
jobs even in the toughest of economic environments.
"I would like to congratulate each and every one of the
successful jobseekers and also the team at Pertemps People
Development Group who have demonstrated that the Working
Neighbourhoods Fund really can change people's lives for the
better."
Regional operations director Dal Veysey said: "WNF is an
extremely important employment initiative for Birmingham. By
transforming the lives of local people through employment
opportunities we can in turn improve the prospects for areas of
regeneration. We have extremely dedicated employees who are going
the extra mile to help local residents. "
A recent WNF success story is Birmingham man Paul Evans who
applied for no less than 85 jobs before finally celebrating the
beginning of an exciting new career in recruitment.
Paul, from Kings Heath, spent eight months looking for work,
filling in numerous unsuccessful job applications along the way
after being made redundant from the television industry. But now
he's secured a position as a recruitment consultant for city-based
Network Recruitment Partnership in Edgbaston where he's thriving,
helping people in the same position he once found himself.
WNF is a voluntary programme delivered by PPDG through five
centres - Handsworth, Harborne, Nechells, Newtown and Sparkhill.
Support available for job seekers through WNF includes:
confidence-building and motivation courses, CV preparation and
interview techniques, training and opportunities to gain new
qualifications, as well as access to 'live' job vacancies.
Birmingham based employment specialists Pertemps People
Development Group are one of the UK's leading providers of
Government-funded Welfare to Work initiatives holding a portfolio
of employment related contracts benefiting job seekers across the
West Midlands.