Published 14 February 2013
100% success for retail jobs course
The Smart Savings Retail employment course has had significant success in Liskeard, Cornwall, with 100% of the participants – who are recruited from Jobcentres – either finding work or work experience. The high success rate has led to 20 more courses across the South West now receiving mainstream funding through Jobcentre Plus with investment from the District Manager’s Flexible Support Fund. The aim is to support 200 people.
Of the 15 people who took the Smart Savings Retail course in Liskeard, 13 have been offered jobs at the new Aldi store in Liskeard and two others are starting work experience. Aldi has also started recruiting more people from the next course and has expressed continuing interest for stores across Devon and Somerset.
Smart Savings Retail was originally piloted with support from ESF Convergence via Cornwall Works 50+. Those original courses led to more than half the participants finding employment or going into voluntary work. There are plans for future courses to include training for employment in the hospitality sector as Cornwall and Devon gears up for the main tourism season.
Jane Jiwa, project director for Smart Savings supported Jane Milligan, employment adviser at Liskeard Jobcentre to assess the right candidates for Aldi’s new store vacancies by providing a clear picture of the type of people the company wanted to recruit, and prepared all candidates for their group interview.
Kate Allison, Area Manager for Aldi, said:
"Smart Savings and Liskeard Jobcentre have helped to facilitate our recruitment for our new store in Liskeard – I can’t thank them enough for their support."
Mark Yeoman, Head of ESF Convergence Communication, said:
"These Liskeard results are great news both for the people and businesses involved. The success endorses the hard work and commitment Jane puts into this training. ESF Convergence was used to trial and test these courses which, from the start, had a high success rate with participants progressing into work and volunteering.
"The mainstream investment from Jobcentre Plus - Devon and Cornwall, for the benefit of their customers, is ensuring that the Smart Savings Retail courses are continuing to play an important and catalytic role in employment and business growth."