DERRY City and Strabane District Council are offering unemployed people a hand up onto the career ladder by working with its contractors to provide paid jobs, apprenticeship opportunities and placements as well as free industry recognised training as part of its Kickstart to Work programme.
With a particular emphasis on the construction industry, the programme aims to give unemployed and economically inactive people living within the Council area the qualifications they need to successfully gain employment in the local employment market as well as job opportunities.
Through the Social Clause initiative, established in 2011, Council have created 60 positions for local unemployed people by adding a condition to the construction contracts it awards that, for every £1m of project value, an employment opportunity must be offered to a long term unemployed or economically inactive person while an apprenticeship is created for every £2m.
Job Brokerage Officer at Derry City and Strabane District Council, Mena Kearney, noted the initiatives’ success in creating positions for local unemployed people.
“The Social Clause Initiative has created new jobs and apprenticeships in a number of major Council capital build projects including the Foyle Arena, Guildhall, Brooke Park and Brandywell redevelopments,” she said.
“To date, a total of 40 jobs, seven apprenticeships, seven student placements and six graduate positions have been created.”
The Social Clause initiative is complimented by Council’s discretionary funding: the ‘Barriers’ Fund, which offers unemployed and economically inactive people in the Council area a number of free construction courses including forklift, dumper and digger driving as well as paying for a new or expired CSR card.
Kickstart to Work has funding available for other courses to increase candidates’ employability in their chosen field including food safety, manual handling and word processing.
“The Barriers Fund’ pays for short courses that could be the difference between a successful and unsuccessful job application,” Mena added.
To find out if the Social Clause Initiative or Barriers Fund can help Kickstart your career, contact the team at Derry City and Strabane District Council on 028 71 308466 or e mail [email protected].
