Almost 1000 at North Ayrshire Employability Week events

The council organised a special week of activities to help people into work or training - and as these pictures show, they attracted some big crowds.

The week was designed to showcase services that are available through North Ayrshire Council and various partners, with information about job vacancies, new careers, training, volunteering and college courses on offer.

The council’s employability service’s Your Next Move, Working North Ayrshire programme arranged it to help people explore opportunities that are available locally.

The key events included:

At the barbecue event (Image: NAC)

An open day and barbecue at Eglinton Community Gardens in Irvine’s Eglinton Park, jointly hosted by Saltcoats-based Ayrshire Community Trust, the council’s Justice service, which supports people who have been through the justice system with unpaid work and training and Equal, which is a council service helping people with disabilities or long-term health conditions get back into work;

a Modern Apprenticeships (MA) recruitment day at Irvine’s Volunteer Rooms;

The Saltcoats Town Hall job fair (Image: NAC)

a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) job fair in Saltcoats Town Hall;

and finally, the official launch of the Parent Hub at Glasgow Street, Ardrossan. This is run by council-funded service We Work for Families, which was set up in 2017 and covers all of North Ayrshire. The team offers help with CVs, confidence building and access to childcare.

The We Work for Families team at the hub opening (Image: NAC)

At Eglinton Park, 110 people turned up to enjoy a barbecue in the sunshine and find out about new opportunities. Feedback included that the event showed “excellent partnership working” and offered “great networking”.

The Modern Apprentice event (Image: NAC)

The MA recruitment day was a hit, with almost 140 young people attending and comments being made on how helpful everyone was and how great the advice offered was.

The DWP job fair attracted almost 500 claimants and, of these, eight people found work straight away, 34 interviews were arranged or conducted and 141 job applications were filled in. And the feedback from attendees, employers and providers was very positive.

At the Parent Hub, more than 100 people went along and four new parents registered to get support in finding employment. Feedback focused on how informative the session was and how welcoming the atmosphere was.

Everyone involved in staging Employability Week agrees that it was a productive week and hopes to see it become a regular feature on the events calendar.

At the Parent Hub opening event (Image: NAC)

Councillor Tony Gurney, cabinet member for economy and climate change, attended the Parent Hub opening, and said: “This entire week was a great way to showcase all of the opportunities people can access across North Ayrshire, regardless of their circumstances.

“It was fantastic to see so many council services, and our partners, getting a new opportunity to tell people about the important work they do and also help people make the first move into a new career, training or volunteering.”

Enjoying the barbecue in Kilwinning (Image: NAC)