Get back to work with help from employment scheme

UNEMPLOYED people in North Somerset are being urged to access support from an initiative aimed at helping people get back to work.

Since 2007 North Somerset Council's Ready4work project has been successful in supporting over 500 local people into employment and almost 300 people on to training courses.

Currently there are around 7,000 people out of work in North Somerset.

The Ready4Work project is aimed at people who have been out of work for six months or more and are claiming health-related benefits such as Incapacity Benefit and Employment Support Allowance, as well as lone parents claiming Income Support.

The project provides participants with a small amount of funding for vocational training courses, along with a £200 job grant for those who start work of 16 hours or more a week.

The job grant is designed to help people while they wait for their first pay cheque.

It enables them to buy any equipment or clothing they need for work, pay their transport costs, or anything else they need to buy in order to start work.

Over the last few years the payment of job grants has extended across North Somerset.

The training funding remains focused on those areas of North Somerset which have particularly high rates of unemployment in comparison to the rest of the district, including the  South, Central, West, East and Clarence and Uphill wards of Weston-super-Mare.

Ready4work has funded participants to undertake training which has led to them finding employment in industries such as construction, counselling, retail, driving, security work, catering, care work and teaching.

To find out more about Ready4Work contact 01934 426 211 or email economic.regeneration@n-somerset.gov.uk.