Since its formation in 2007 one of the key pieces of work that CEIS Ayrshire delivers is its employability services. Every day, people walk through the doors of CEIS Ayrshire offices looking for support in getting a job. The team’s extensive skillset ensures that they can help people find employment by giving them access to local vacancies, offering support to improve interview skills, helping refine their CV and much more.
For some, this means receiving training or taking courses to acquire new skills, thus making them more likely to obtain employment for the plethora of businesses in the local area. Others have perhaps been struggling to obtain a job for a variety of reasons ranging from health issues to being out of work for a long time, and everything you can think of in between.
Whatever the needs of the client, CEIS Ayrshire do their best to help their clients enter, or re-enter, the world of work.
The Ardrossan Youth Employability Hub
Recently, in partnership with North Ayrshire Council, we piloted a new youth employability hub for ten 16–24-year-olds. This programme took the clients through 4 weeks of pre-employment workshops including Mentoring Circles, Skills & Qualities, Confidence Building and Resilience, CV creation and vocational training relevant to the industries they indicated a desire to work in.
The group all engaged very well with their peers and the CEIS Ayrshire Team over the 4 weeks, growing in confidence and gaining vital skills each day they attended.
The programme culminated in a series of face-to-face interviews with five local employers, encouraging them to apply for any positions that they have available. Employers included The Richmond Fellowship, North Ayrshire Council, Carewatch, Orange Packaging and Wifi Spark.
The employers and clients came together for the final day on March 31st, and we were on hand to snap some photos and have a chat with the employers, our colleagues and, of course, our clients. Here is what they had to say.
“The people I’ve spoken to today are a lot more confident and I think that’s down to the work CEIS Ayrshire has done with them. I’m glad to see that a company like yourselves is putting training in place to give people the confidence they need to apply for jobs and do well in interviews.”
– Margaret Forester, Wifi Spark
“Working in care is a job that some people don’t think about and it’s good to open the door for individuals to see if it’s for them because there are plenty of people who come into the sector and like it. It was fantastic speaking to these people today and showing them the different options they have available to them in the care sector.”
– Dean McMillan, Carewatch
“We were invited here by the job centre, and we find events like this important. It gives us an opportunity to attract people who are looking to get into the world of work.”
– Heather Campbell, Orange
When chatting to the clients after the event, they all said that they found the help with their CVs, resilience training and help to build their confidence as being very valuable.
“It’s been amazing how this group has gelled over the last 4 weeks and how we’ve watched their personalities grow.”
– Joan Gibson, Skills and Training Team Lead
“The progression from when they came in the door to where they are now has been great. The way they’ve come out of their shell and have been interacting and communicating with us has been excellent.”
– Craig Jarvie, Youth Team Leader
The pilot was a great success for CEIS Ayrshire, so much so the next Youth HUB is starting at Fullarton Community Centre in Irvine on Thursday 28th April with a timetable being created to run them throughout North Ayrshire over the next 12 months.
Want to learn more?
If you would like to find out more about our youth employability hubs, or if you’re a business and you’d like to learn more about working with us, get in touch today.