Improved access to careers advice

from Touchbase e-zine

Unemployed people will be given better access to careers advice, starting with a trial programme that will significantly boost the number of careers advisers providing services through the Next Step service.

The trial, which will take place in 22 Jobcentre Plus locations across England, will also help shape the new National Careers Service, which starts in April 2012.

The programme will give Jobcentre Plus claimants full-time access to careers advice through the Next Step service and provide better, more flexible support to help jobseekers gain the skills they need to find work. Minister for Employment Chris Grayling said: “We want to make sure that we give those looking for work the right skills that mean when we put them in front of an employer, they get the job.”

“Too often in the past jobseekers were sent off to do long courses that taught them skills that local employers didn’t value. That’s all changing - we are getting people ‘job ready’ to take advantage of the opportunities being created across the economy.”
The new support is part of a wider skills support programme for unemployed people that launched in August 2011.

For more information go to Next Step (Directgov website)

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