Following a robust tender process, The Children’s Centre has won the government contract for a three year programme designed to get people back into meaningful employment or education.

The Community Employability Programme (CEP) specifically targets people who, for whatever reason, are unemployed. The programme includes formal and on-the-job training, including essential coaching in CV writing and interview skills.

Mark Payne, Head of Charitable Services for The Children’s Centre, says that this is great news:

“The Children’s Centre has a long and distinguished record of supporting people who are unemployed, and this new initiative will enable us to help even more people develop the skills employers require.

“The common thread in everything we do is to see and nurture potential,” continues Mark, “and this truly exceptional programme not only encourages people to see their own worth to society, but with our input they are helped to channel their energies and skills into something which makes other people, whether its employers or providers of further education, see it too.”

In past years - under the previous Community Impact Team scheme - The Children’s Centre worked in partnership with the Job Centre and Benefits Office, and in 2015 helped 48 people previously considered unemployable find meaningful employment or return to full- or part-time education.

The new CEP contract means The Children’s Centre can now continue to develop further partnerships with organisations that share our aim to build potential in others.

The new initiative is centred around a number of community-based projects, all designed to foster a range of important employability skills, including time management, teamwork and self-esteem.

Possible community projects suggested by The Children’s Centre in its successful bid were proposals to develop enhanced recycling initiatives, such as a ‘scrap store’ for local people to source items for arts and crafts projects, and practical aid for local charities and churches, providing a maintenance service which they could not afford commercially.

As Mark Payne says, the CEP is great news for both participants on the programme and for the Island as a whole.

“This new Community Employment Programme provides participants with relevant and transferrable workplace skills, and gives them a sense of achievement. By extending our services, many more people will see how their newly acquired skills have a genuine, important and long-lasting impact on Island life.”

But don’t just take his word for it. Greg Corkill, who attended the CIT scheme and now works at The Children’s Centre helping to manage the CEP scheme, knows just what a difference it can make.

As he says: “The Community Impact Team has given me the support and confidence to help myself and to help others, who often through no fault of their own have found themselves unemployed. I have experienced difficulties in my own life and it was CIT that enabled me to meet those challenges, learn new skills, to develop through real experience and find the confidence to be employed in a role where I can help others to do the same.”

Photo - Greg Corkill (left) and Chris Martin, Manager of the CEP scheme at The Children’s Centre, at the workshop where Greg is undertaking repairs to one of the bikes before recycling.