Thanks to Claire Howarth for getting in touch with news of this successful scheme. Ed
As a result of great team work between leading welfare to work charity Careers Development Group (CDG) and other local businesses, Newport Football Club has a set of newly decorated function rooms ready to welcome guests at the start of the new season.
Alison Baxter, manager of Newport Football Club, was searching for recruits to decorate the walls of two function rooms at the club, which is located at St George’s Park on the outskirts of Newport, when CDG was recommended to her by Steve Ray from Vectis Radio.
What’s the Careers Development Group?
CDG is a dynamic national charity which seeks to help individuals who have been out of work for a considerable time or who have issues or disabilities that make it difficult for them to find sustainable employment.
As well as providing a range of services to help customers back into work, they provide solutions for local employers looking to recruit the right people into the right jobs, at no cost.
CDG provided a spruce-up team
Seeing an opportunity to brighten up the club whilst offering valuable work experience to local unemployed people, Alison approached Claire Howarth and Richard Page from the employer engagement team at CDG with a proposal, and together they drew up a work schedule for a group of individuals on the CDG programme.
The ten people selected for the work placement have been working four days a week since the end of July and, under supervision, have been responsible for the redecoration of the two rooms from start to finish. Local companies Johnstone’s Decorating Centre and ITS Tools Ltd generously donated the team wallpaper steamers and decorating materials.
Great experience
Alison Baxter commented, “I hadn’t heard of CDG before, but once I had found out what they did I thought it was an excellent way to help the unemployed gain some experience and give them something to add to their CV. It’s been great to have a group eager to volunteer their services and show their worth. It is thanks to Johnstone’s, ITS and the help from CDG that we have been able to get a job that needed to be done quite quickly completed.”
Commenting on the initiative, Claire Howarth, employer engagement consultant for CDG said,
“Many people are quick to judge the unemployed and they are often misunderstood. Here we have a group of ten individuals who are willing to work and who want to work, and when they are given an opportunity like this one, they really do get stuck in. The group has done a superb job here, gained valuable work experience and rewarded themselves and the club.”
Wednesday, 25th August, 2010 3:19pm
ShortURL: http://wig.ht/26HY
Filed under: Employment, Newport, News, Volunteering
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25.Aug.2010 3:28pm
Good to see rather tham people sat at home doing nothing. We need more stuff like this
25.Aug.2010 5:31pm
would be better if they had been paid rather than volunteering. work experience is all well and good, but paid work is better, and im sure Newport Football Club could have afforded at least a donation to the charity. Still, at least it keeps the unemployed busy and entertained.
25.Aug.2010 6:32pm
work experience….my backside!!!! Do you seriously think that putting that job on a CV will help those blokes get a job, I doubt it very much. But I do think that we’re going to see more and more of this kind of thing in the near future. I agree IB they should of been paid.
25.Aug.2010 7:35pm
I agree that it would be good for the volunteers to be paid however CDG is a charity training provider that works closely with the job centre and the volunteers are part of a training programme which is ongoing for 13 weeks. Unfortunately most of the people referred from the jobcentre have a large gap on their CV and by doing some sort of work placement it helps to add something valuable to it which may of course help them find employment. I have known many people that have been on the course with CDG and other training provideres and due to work placements/opportunities have successfully gained employment. What we must remember is that putting something such as this type of work on a CV may not look the greatest to everyone but to me and perhaps others it shows that these volunteers are motivated, helpful and definately have the willingness to work.
25.Aug.2010 8:13pm
the fact that they are applying for a job shows they have the willingness to work and are motivated. And whilst being paid would be good, my earlier point was more that the football club has got a lot of work done for free, so maybe a donation to the charity and some free tickets for the workers would be a nice gesture. Or at the very least buy them a nice pub lunch.
26.Aug.2010 7:07am
Any payment or reward “in kind” such as a meal would probably then be deducted from their unenployment benefit so they’d have ended up no better off!