Employment Coach
Circle Collective Lewisham, England, United Kingdom On-site
About the job
Employment Coach - Job Description
Location: Hackney, Tower Hamlets & Lewisham
Contract: Permanent
Hours of work: 9:30am to 5:30pm – Monday to Friday (some hours outside of this and weekend work may be necessary)
Reporting to: Operations Director
About Circle Collective
We’re an exciting and innovative charity that helps unemployed young people develop the workplace skills, confidence, positive mindset, and self-discipline needed to secure life-changing permanent employment.
So far, we have placed over 850+ young people into jobs in a wide variety of sectors across London.
Our unique ‘Back Your Future’ training course includes employability and motivation workshops which run alongside the opportunity to attend work experience in our Circle Collective shop – a streetwear/vintage and skate store selling unique sustainable pieces from local young designers as well as global brands.
We have locations in Hackney, Lewisham and recently opened a new site in Canary Wharf.
What is the role’s purpose?
You will be passionate about supporting unemployed young people to develop the life skills needed to secure life-changing permanent employment.
The role involves working intensively with a caseload of young people (16-30 years), providing bespoke one to one support and mentoring, co-ordinating and delivering employability sessions, organising work experience, and liaising with employers to secure job opportunities.
We are looking for a target driven and energetic self-starter who is passionate about supporting young people into paid jobs and thrives in a fast-paced work environment. We are a small busy team, and you will have the chance to be involved in all elements of the growing charity and social enterprise - you must be able to balance competing priorities, think on your feet and be invested in our social mission.
We believe this role requires an individual with the right transferable skills that match the requirements of this role, but it is not essential to have experience in employability.
What are the main duties?
- Liaising with external partners and referral agencies (e.g. Jobcentre Plus, youth support agencies, colleges, welfare to work providers, community and voluntary organisations etc.) to recruit target number of young people onto the ‘Back Your Future’ programme.
- Lead recruitment sessions to meet and induct young people interested in joining the programme, complete initial assessments, check young person meet eligibility requirements, and demonstrate commitment to completing the programme.
- Conduct one-to-one sessions with each young person to review progress, agree a personal action plan, timetable of employability workshops and work experience shifts and provide additional support as required.
- Deliver employability workshops including sessions on developing a CV, preparing for interviews and coordinating regular job club sessions.
- Weekly review of young people on caseload, focusing on work experience, skills development, access to corporate/ partner workshops, job readiness and referrals to jobs.
- Book and accompany young people onto corporate days/ training days, encouraging them to increase their network and apply for jobs and work experience.
- Update a Customer Management System (CMS) daily with all activities and capture relevant data to aid reporting to funders while providing weekly updates during team meetings and reviews with line manager regarding caseload.
- Build positive relationships with local employers to generate job opportunities and work experience and match existing caseload to all opportunities.
- Meet contractual targets for supporting young people into jobs and helping them to sustain and progress in work.
- Produce case studies for young people moving into work collating photos, quotes from young people and employers and promoting success stories to our funders and supporters.
- Follow-up with young people who fall off the programme encouraging them to re-engage and providing feedback to referral agency.
- Follow young people who have gained employment for their first 6 months in work, offering support and guidance in this transitional period.
- Attend external meetings including partner and networking events.
- Professional development and training to stay abreast of changes to the youth employability and training landscape.
- Promote Health & Safety and Safeguarding standards, ensuring the welfare of managed caseload.
- Travel to other Circle locations as required.
- To undertake any additional duties as required.
This role will require a criminal record check (DBS) and candidates must be eligible to live and work in the UK.
Person Specification:
- Qualification English & Maths or supporting Basic/Functional/Key Skills at Level 2
- Excellent communications skills, written and verbal
- Ability to network effectively and build relationship
- Ability to be responsive to the individual needs of a young person
- The ability to work in a non-discriminatory manner
- Effective organisational skills and ability to self-manage and prioritise
- Ability to meet deadlines and targets
- Good IT skills
- Calm under pressure
- Adhere to our values and core mission