New college hub providing gateway to employment in Wolverhampton

The careers and skills hub at the City of Wolverhampton College’s campus in Wellington Road, Bilston, provides free advice to people who are not in education, employment or training. They are also given help in overcoming the challenges that prevent them from getting into work.

Developed as part of a city-wide initiative to get people into work, the hub offers one-to-one support with career planning, financial planning and health and wellbeing, as well as sessions on producing a CV, searching and applying for jobs and interview techniques.

People can also find out about job vacancies with local employers, apprenticeship opportunities, free sector-based training programmes and college courses to give them the skills they need to work in their chosen field.

Councillor Chris Burden (Lab. Fallings Park), the council’s cabinet member for education, skills and work, said: “Interventions like these are vital to helping people into work, and helping them overcome the barriers which have prevented them from accessing employment.

“The college was already doing vital work in this area, but this is their next step in helping our citizens even more. It sounds like a small intervention, but CV writing and knowing where to find jobs are some of the biggest barriers facing our residents. I’m happy that that the college is targeting these areas alongside vital life skills such as financial planning.

“It’s fantastic to see that this centre is already seeing success in helping our local job seekers gain employment. I hope as many people as possible take advantage of this hard work, and my thanks go out to the college for their efforts,” he added.

Lorna Prosser, curriculum manager for community, employability and ESOL at the college, said: “The new careers and skills hub is the go-to place for anyone looking for work or training as they can get free and impartial advice on a range of opportunities, all in one place.

“It is already proving that the approach works, as a number of local people who attended sessions here have now gone into employment in hospitality, retail and health care, whilst another is now on our rail track sector-based work academy programme.”

The centre, developed by the college in partnership with the Department of Work and Pensions and Wolverhampton Council, is open for people to drop in between 9am and 6.30pm Monday to Thursday, and 9am to 4.30pm on Friday. Appointments are also available on Saturday mornings but these must be booked in advance.

For more information or to book an appointment call 01902 317710 or email careersandskills@wolvcoll.ac.uk

The college currently has around 10,000 students, as well as over 600 apprentices working for employers across the Black Country and beyond.