Clyde Valley and North Lanarkshire’s Working provide “Extra Pair of Hands”
North Lanarkshire’s Working in partnership with Clyde Valley Housing Association are pleased to announce the "Extra Pair of Hands" programme.
With the enormous support of Clyde Valley’s Contractors and Consultants; namely, Timetra Ltd, City Technical Services, Crudens, Brown & Wallace, Martin Aitken, and McTaggart Construction the programme involves companies employ a local young person for a six months period to help them out. The programme is about local companies, doing local work, and giving local young people a chance to prove themselves, as well as gain confidence and an understanding of the working world.
The programme is run under North Lanarkshire’s Working, an employability initiative led by North Lanarkshire Council, which aims to help the long-term unemployed, lone parents, and school leavers into education, training and employment. To help encourage local employers to engage with the service and help local people into work, North Lanarkshire’s Working has agreed to pay a significant contribution to the wages of each new employee who starts work under the scheme.
The selected young people started their induction week on 3rd August with the participants all attending a two day teambuilding with the Focus Youth Project. They then attended a course at Motherwell College, a North Lanarkshire’s Working partner, between 5th and 7h August to gain an understanding of health and safety and customer care skills, and their work placements started on the 10th August. In addition the participants will come together throughout their placement for joint teambuilding events.
North Lanarkshire Council Leader Jim McCabe said “this is an excellent venture involving the Council and CVHA; to be able to give local young people the opportunity to gain some life experience is invaluable and will help send them on their way for the future.
CVHA Chairman Tom Campbell added “During this particular economic climate, it is even more difficult for school leavers to gain employment, but by helping to give them that little extra experience to add to their CV’s is a great opportunity for both the employers and the participants. To also be able to continue our successful partnership working with the Council is a great boost for the Association.
Hugh Logan, Principal of Motherwell College is delighted to be welcoming the participants to the new facility as part of their induction programme and says “this is an excellent initiative and we are really pleased that the new local campus is being used for such a positive local programme”.
North Lanarkshire’s Working, launched in April 2008, has secured £19m funding for two years from a range of external funds including ERDF, ESF, Fairer Scotland Funds, plus match funding from local partners. The initiative has helped more than 1,300 local people into work to date.
