Pippa MyringThe Future Prospects service set up by City of York Council is part of a new national project, supported by the Department of Work and Pensions, providing free advice to residents on employment, money, benefits and learning.
The service helps people who are thinking of starting a job, changing their working hours, looking for a career change or hoping to get back into education. They provide information, guidance, advice, and practical skills, as well as job searching facilities and employability training.
The Support Employment Project also helps disabled people and those with long-term health problems to get back into work, start a course or change their career.
The part European Social Fund financed scheme, aims at helping families to acquire the skills and confidence necessary to to get them back into employment. York’s team will be based in the city centre over the course of the next three years, working alongside private organisation, EOS Works Ltd.
Manager of Future Prospects, Colette Gray, said: “This project is a unique opportunity to work with individuals and their families to tackle some of the issues that can arise as a result of worklessness in local communities”.
Although unemployment if fairly low in York, relative to other cities around the country, the effect unemployment can have on the individual and families can be huge. Figures released yesterday revealed that unemployment rose by 118,000 in the three months to November, leaving 2.685 million people unemployed, with under 25′s hardest hit with over a million young people out of work.
These figures make for depressing reading, but just reinforce the need for vital schemes such as Future Prospects. Di Fryar, Operations Manager for EOS Works Ltd, said: “In the current climate it is really important that families can get a full range of support to meet the challenge of getting in to the job market”.
The scheme is one of five key priorities outlined by the council for 2011-2015, which include creating jobs and growing the economy, getting York moving, building strong communities, protecting vulnerable people, and protecting the environment.
For more information about the help and support you could get, call Colette Gray at Future Prospects on 01904 634748
