Our vital support helping women with conviction overcome barriers to employment continues to be delivered remotely as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
When a woman comes to Working Chance, her first point of contact is our employability and support team. This October, they met virtually with 12 new women to explore their needs and career aspirations and develop a personalised support plan through our service. We held eight group workshops to help women develop their employability, covering everything from confidence building, to disclosure and the law, to interview practice to communication in the workplace. On top of these group sessions, we provided 48 hours of one-to-one support to women who wanted further help in a specific area.
Ann, who has been attending some of our workshops this month told us what these have meant to her:
“I find being engaged in these types of workshops gives me stress free pressure to move forward, the Employability Support Team and participants are great. It’s given me a sense of emotional wellbeing… thanks for being such an amazing inspiration!”
Over on the recruitment team, our consultants were busy helping women to find roles that align with their goals and needs and supporting them through the hiring process. In October, they supported six women into work across a wide range of industries including a keyworker supporting the NHS with track and trace. Two of these women started in frontline volunteering roles at a domestic violence charity. Volunteering opportunities are a great way for women build up their skills and work experience to help them pursue careers that they are interested in. In a recent conversation with Pret A Manger (who have partnered with us over many years), we were told:
“We were, and continue to be, blown away by the calibre and quality of applicants that came through from Working Chance; it’s a great talent pool for us to choose from. The women often have incredible CVs, experience and knowledge.”
We couldn’t agree more and feedback like this inspires us to keep encouraging businesses to recognise the vast talent and skills of women with convictions.