The Mayor of Walsall will meet with a team of training specialists to learn more about efforts to help young people across the town find jobs.

Employment experts Pertemps People Development Group's (PPDG) will welcome Councillor Gary Clarke to their Bradford Place offices at 1.30pm on Friday, January 21st .

PPDG team leader Andrew Downes invited the mayor to visit the centre to demonstrate how the company is working alongside local businesses to provide clients with a vital first step onto the career ladder.

Andrew said: "We are delighted that the Mayor of Walsall has expressed an interest in our work as we prepare to celebrate our first anniversary of providing employment support for almost 250 of the town's young people, aged between 18 and 24.

"There will be an opportunity to meet our clients and the PPDG team, learn how we work to overcome the hurdles unemployed people face and the innovative ways we prepare job seekers for the workplace in order to secure sustainable employment."

Representatives of local employers including Sitexorbis, TJ Hughes and Spar will also attend.

Client David Pulham, aged 23, from Bloxwich, has already been promoted twice since securing employment with the help of the PPDG team at the Spar shop within Walsall's Manor Hospital.

Regional operations director Jolie Williams said: "David is typical of the success we're achieving with local job seekers. The message is: take advantage of the services available, the right advice could lead to a whole new career."

PPDG delivers the Government funded Work Focused Training (WFT) initiative across Walsall, providing vocational training opportunities and employability skills to 18 to 24-year-olds. It is part of the Government's Backing Young Britain campaign, in partnership with the Future Jobs Fund and the Community Taskforce, which encourages organisations to provide young people with the opportunity they need to work.

PPDG's team of employment experts provide advice on benefits, confidence building, one-to-one support, CV and interview preparation as well as finding the right job or training course. In partnership with DWP, the Ministry of Justice and Jobcentre Plus, PPDG delivers a diverse range of employment and training initiatives including Flexible New Deal, Working Neighbourhoods Fund, Learndirect and many ESF funded programmes. More than 100,000 job seekers have been helped into sustained employment by the company since the projects began.  It has trained 130,000 people in vocational skills, and over 175,000 people have benefitted from professional information, advice and guidance services.