Date: 12 November 2009
Stockton South MP Dari Taylor has visited
Working Links’ new offices in the area to find out how the company
helps people back into work.
Mrs Taylor, who also sits on the National
Policy Forum’s Creating Sustainable Communities panel, popped in to
see the brand new offices in Calvert Lane, Stockton.
The offices, which opened in October, will be
specifically delivering the Government’s flexible New Deal (fND)
contract. Through flexible New Deal Working Links will help people
who have been out of work for over 12 months overcome their
barriers to work through support and training.
During her visit, Mrs Taylor met with local
managers and some of the clients being supported into work by
Working Links.
She met driver Vince Kelly, 50, who was made
redundant and has been out of work for more than a year, but then
found a job just two days after meeting Mrs Taylor. He said: "I
thoroughly enjoyed the course, it really opened my eyes to
interview techniques and helped me think about my answers.”
Fellow driver Mark Redisons, 42 has also been
out of work for 18 months. He added: “It’s totally different to
anything I've done before. I feel I'm learning something instead of
just sending letters out. We've been shown how to find jobs and
been helped with interview skills.”
Since April, Working Links has helped more
than 900 people back into work in the Tees Valley area and over
120,000 nationally over nine years.
On her visit, Mrs Taylor said: “Meeting the
Working Links team with their clients who want paid employment was
inspiring. The fact that the team is flexible, adapting
training and support to an individual’s needs, and both managing
and encouraging hopes and aspirations, explains why they are
successful.
“I will be advising all who ask for help into
employment to visit Working Links with high expectations that they
will help."
Graham McAlpine, Working Links’ fND Operations
Manager for the North, said: “Dari’s visit enabled us to showcase
the great work we are undertaking in the Tees Valley area, getting
hundreds of people back into sustainable employment.”