Case study 4
St Austell Regeneration
The Cornish town of St Austell is at the beginning of a total transformation, thanks to a £40 million regeneration project to get rid of its 1960s town centre and replace it with two new squares, a new cinema and a range of upscale restaurants, shops and pubs.
Jobcentre Plus realised that with new businesses such as JD Wetherspoon and Whitbread opening up, there was a real opportunity for local jobseekers to get a foot in the door – but only if they had the right sort of skills.
So Jobcentre Plus teamed up with DMT Business Services to offer two special two-week courses, which covered health and safety training, basic food hygiene and first aid.
Around 30 local people participated in the training courses, which were put together with the help of both JD Wetherspoon and Whitbread.
“We are creating a number of new jobs in St Austell,” said Sue Cacioppo, Wetherspoon’s personnel director. “We thought that the joint training initiative with Jobcentre Plus was a great way of helping people to get jobs within Wetherspoons, as well as offering them skills that are useful in the general work environment.”
One of the people who did the training is Joanna Milsom, until recently a full-time mum, who has been bringing up her two children by herself since she left school.
“I’ve been seeing all my friends leave college and university and getting jobs, and I decided that I also want a career now,” she said. “I needed some adult company to get my brain working again, and I also wanted the chance to meet some new people and to earn some money.
“I thought the course was fantastic, and it helped me to get a job with Wetherspoons, where I’ll be able to do all the things I wanted to do.”
