An innovative North East employability project, designed to tackle unemployment rates head on and provide a diverse range of reskilling opportunities, is celebrating the success of its latest intake of work placements.
Through New Start, a paid work placement scheme, 61 North East social housing residents have completed five-month, paid placements with 23 local employers.
The residents and employers who took part recently celebrated the completion of their placements at events held in Newcastle. The New Start team were able to showcase the impact of the programme on forging new employment opportunities and highlight some of the success stories New Start has had over the last year.
John Doherty, a Karbon Homes customer from Hexham who had been out of work due to a disability, completed a New Start placement with Forum Cinema Hexham, working as an usher.
John said: “My confidence has just gone from zero to hero and that’s thanks to New Start. They realised there was potential there with me. They haven’t pushed me into a job that they know would be no good for me. I genuinely look forward to going into work on Monday.”
Clare Mwande, General Manager at Hexham Forum Cinema sees New Start as a great opportunity to get people on the career ladder.
“We’re a community cinema, therefore we like to reach out into the community and do as much work within the community as we can. Recruiting through New Start enabled us to hire people who perhaps get overlooked.”
“John has been absolutely brilliant to have around here. He has learned loads of new skills with us and will be able to go on and show those skills in other jobs.
“New Start gives people a bit of a leg up, giving them that opportunity and saying ‘you can do this’ improves that confidence, develops that professionalism and enables people to go out and get jobs where they thought previously, they might not be able to.”
The New Start scheme was funded by the UK Government and supported by the North East Combined Authority (NECA).It has been developed in partnership with local housing associations, Karbon Homes and Bernicia working alongside Newcastle City Council, North Tyneside Council and the Housing Employment Network North East (HENNE).
New Start helps residents overcome the biggest barriers to getting into employment and taking a new career direction. Participants are offered 121 support from an employment advisor during the recruitment process and their role. This helps them to get the most from their experience and look at how they can potentially turn the placement into a long-term career.
Philip Pollard, Assistant Director of Customer and Community Engagement at Karbon, said: “Helping our customers and communities to thrive is a key aim for Karbon and providing employment support that helps residents to reach their full potential and local economies to prosper, plays an important role in this.
“We’re thrilled that through New Start we’ve been able to help 61 social housing NECA residents to create life changing employment pathways, supporting them through the barriers they face and challenge recruitment practices, empowering change to give real people a chance to shine.”
New Start opportunities have been made available across the North East with 252 placements created since its launch in 2022.
After completing a placement, over 100 social housing residents have gone on to secure employment, 20 have moved into further education and over 95 have moved into a new placement.
An innovative North East employability project, designed to tackle unemployment rates head on and provide a diverse range of reskilling opportunities, is celebrating the success of its latest intake of work placements.
Through New Start, a paid work placement scheme, 61 North East social housing residents have completed five-month, paid placements with 23 local employers.
The residents and employers who took part recently celebrated the completion of their placements at events held in Newcastle. The New Start team were able to showcase the impact of the programme on forging new employment opportunities and highlight some of the success stories New Start has had over the last year.
John Doherty, a Karbon Homes customer from Hexham who had been out of work due to a disability, completed a New Start placement with Forum Cinema Hexham, working as an usher.
John said: “My confidence has just gone from zero to hero and that’s thanks to New Start. They realised there was potential there with me. They haven’t pushed me into a job that they know would be no good for me. I genuinely look forward to going into work on Monday.”
Clare Mwande, General Manager at Hexham Forum Cinema sees New Start as a great opportunity to get people on the career ladder.
“We’re a community cinema, therefore we like to reach out into the community and do as much work within the community as we can. Recruiting through New Start enabled us to hire people who perhaps get overlooked.”
“John has been absolutely brilliant to have around here. He has learned loads of new skills with us and will be able to go on and show those skills in other jobs.
“New Start gives people a bit of a leg up, giving them that opportunity and saying ‘you can do this’ improves that confidence, develops that professionalism and enables people to go out and get jobs where they thought previously, they might not be able to.”
The New Start scheme was funded by the UK Government and supported by the North East Combined Authority (NECA).It has been developed in partnership with local housing associations, Karbon Homes and Bernicia working alongside Newcastle City Council, North Tyneside Council and the Housing Employment Network North East (HENNE).
New Start helps residents overcome the biggest barriers to getting into employment and taking a new career direction. Participants are offered 121 support from an employment advisor during the recruitment process and their role. This helps them to get the most from their experience and look at how they can potentially turn the placement into a long-term career.
Philip Pollard, Assistant Director of Customer and Community Engagement at Karbon, said: “Helping our customers and communities to thrive is a key aim for Karbon and providing employment support that helps residents to reach their full potential and local economies to prosper, plays an important role in this.
“We’re thrilled that through New Start we’ve been able to help 61 social housing NECA residents to create life changing employment pathways, supporting them through the barriers they face and challenge recruitment practices, empowering change to give real people a chance to shine.”
New Start opportunities have been made available across the North East with 252 placements created since its launch in 2022.
After completing a placement, over 100 social housing residents have gone on to secure employment, 20 have moved into further education and over 95 have moved into a new placement.
To find out more about New Start, visit www.new-start.co.uk.
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