Support Workshops will explain all about the Fair Chance Employer programme

Since its creation in November 2021, Warwickshire County Council's Fair Chance Employment Programme, which help employers “level up” their opportunities by offering people with supportive needs equal access to careers, has delivered some inspiring stories. The programme is going from strength to strength and further businesses who would like to get involved can find out more at two workshops in the New Year, as Heather Docksey, Business Skills Support Advisor at Warwickshire Skills Hub, explains.

We want to ensure that every business who signs up to the Warwickshire County Council's Fair Chance Employment Programme feels supported in their recruitment and employment processes.

Our Fair Chance support workshops aim to highlight the benefits of inclusive employment, as well as offering solution-focused problem-solving to remove any barriers that might be in place. We will also open the floor to any questions to enable us to myth bust any potential concerns or specific queries.

Hosted both online and in-person, events planned for 2024 include:

•        Supported employment for people with a learning disability and/or autism

•        How to support military and defence personnel and their families in partnership with The Armed Forces Covenant.

•        Employing young people leaving the care system and young carers who have responsibilities at home.

•        Offering employment to people aged over 50 who are looking to retrain, and move into a new career.

•        Working with approved training providers to source the most appropriate qualifications and training for your employees.

To kick off these interactive and valuable workshops, Warwickshire Skills Hub is delighted to be hosting an in-person event. We will be running the same workshop in two different locations to ensure easy accessibility for employers in all regions and will keep the workshops short and concise at 90 minutes: 09:30- 11:30 (including a comfort break).

Warwickshire Supported Employment Service will be leading our first event to talk about their service and the support that is available for their customers who all have a learning disability and/or autism. They will be sharing their wealth of experience on how businesses can benefit from inclusive employment, discussing reasonable adjustments, and how job roles can be carved and designed around the business needs as well as the customers strengths, skills, and talents. It will be an interactive session with videos, case studies and most importantly, the chance to ask lots of questions.

 •        The first of these will be on Wednesday January 17th, 2024, to be held at Eliot Park Business Centre in Nuneaton.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/employer-workshops-warks-skills-hub-fair-chance-employment-programme-tickets-768300877607?aff=oddtdtcreator

•        Our second workshop will be on Wednesday January 31st, 2024, at the Pound Lane Learning Centre in Lillington, Leamington Spa.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/employer-workshops-warks-skills-hub-fair-chance-employment-programme-tickets-768317738037?aff=oddtdtcreator

To book onto the workshop nearest to you, please follow the link to your chosen venue. Places will be limited so book early to avoid disappointment.

For any questions, please get in touch and we will be happy to support you, just email us at fairchance@warwickshire.gov.uk or if you haven’t yet signed up to Fair Chance just follow this link https://forms.office.com/e/HzYdgfWWPt to join over 60 Warwickshire employers who are already seeing the benefits of inclusive employment.

In the meantime to learn more about the Fair Chance Programme and its aims and benefits visit our Fair Chance Jobs Portal https://fairchancejobs.warwickshire.gov.uk/. The portal is a tool created to connect our candidates with the Fair Chance Employers and the opportunities they can offer. The portal allows the businesses to advertise their vacancies for free whist reaching the untapped pool of candidates.