Our Restart Scheme teams in the East of England have had a month of fun and success throughout June! Here’s a piece from our Integration Manager, Hannah Parnell, to show what they’ve been getting up to and the lives they’ve been changing.
Norfolk & Suffolk Speed Interview event
On Wednesday 15th June, 12 employers and providers were invited to our Lowestoft and Norwich centre to take part in a fast-paced interview practice event. Over 80 interviews took place on the day, which consisted of three rounds of 5 minute interviews. Aviva, Home Bargains, Wetherspoons, Voluntary Norfolk, Norfolk and Waveney Mind and WEA were all a part of the day and supported our participants in gaining practice and experience of interviewing.
From this event, 9 participants were invited to formal interviews for live vacancies! Estelle took part in the interviews and said, “It was a brilliant experience and it’s helped my confidence so much.”
Bury St Edmunds Job Fair
On Friday 17th June, we celebrated National Employability Day with a special jobs fair held in our Bury St Edmunds office. We invited different employers and providers to the office to engage with participants and give them access to live job vacancies throughout the county. Matthew, Clare, and all of the Bury team worked hard to ensure a variety of opportunities were available to suit our participants.
The office was buzzing and a hive of activity. Tradeline Recruitment, Centre Parcs, Two Sisters and Direct Table Food were some of the employers that supported us, and there were 98 interviews and 2 job offers from the day!
Bury’s Bake Off for Macmillan
Lauren Morely, Employment Advisor in our Bury St Edmunds office, took the lead on organising our first Macmillan coffee morning in our Seetec Pluss office. Lauren decided to organise the event, after her grandfather had been diagnosed with cancer. Her motivation was to raise money to support the charity who are looking after her family.
To ensure the event was a success, Lauren turned the coffee morning into a Bury Cake Off! Participants were invited to make a cake with an allocated budget to take part and for any budding bakers to show off their skills. The coffee morning was a huge success and they raised £76 for Macmillan! Lauren said, “I was really overwhelmed with the support from the team and grateful for all the donations for a great cause.”
Great Yarmouth Digital Skills Campaign
Employment Advisor, Orla, from our Great Yarmouth office headed up the digital skills provision for her customers working in collaboration with Job Skilla, after identifying 50 participants with this skills gap. We worked closely with Job Skilla to the right course for our participants and we chose the course with an element of basic skills but also job searching online and uploading documents to an email.
Orla set up two cohorts and the first wave of 10 learners completed their course last week and gained their free tablet at the end to enable them to carry on with their learning and job searching from home. This was the first course since the pandemic that Job Skilla have carried out in a face-to-face classroom and we were proud that Seetec Pluss were asked to be the first delivery partner.
Martyn from Job Skilla said, “I am truly impressed with how Orla has helped to manage this project…I am sure that because of her efforts, some of our participants will have their lives changed for the better.”
Kings Lynn partnership works with local security employer, Excalibur, to fill local vacancies
Our Kings Lynn team welcomed Excalibur Security, a local company working in events and security. Dave from Excalibur is delighted to work with us and give local people who are seeking employment the opportunity to progress and learn new skills. Kings Lynn organised a day of interviews for stewarding positions for events that are coming up in Kings Lynn.
Seetec have collaborated with Harlow College to deliver a specific SIA qualification for our participants. They will take part in a 21 day course which covers employability, physical interventions and awareness of safety. Once our participants have completed the 21 day course, they will receive their SIA license which will enable them to work in various roles in security and events. Exalibur will then come back to our centre and interview again to fill their contracted, permanent vacancies!
Simon, who took part in the course, said, “This was my 2nd ever interview and I can’t believe I might be working at Download Festival next year!”
Lowestoft supports Wellbeing Wednesday event at the local library
Lowestoft celebrated and supported Realise Futures in their Wellbeing Wednesday event! Lots of local providers and support agencies joined the day and came together to showcase the local community support that is available for people to access! Seetec Pluss joined, NHS, Macmillan Support, Realise Futures, East Coast College and Suffolk MIND.
The event was fabulous and a great opportunity to promote what Seetec Pluss do and to also link in with provisions for our advisors to use to enhance their participants journey back into employment. We saw some of our participants attend the event and explore all of the opportunities available for them! Matthew from the team said, “This was a great way for us to network with local providers and talk to the local community about skills gaps!”
#NoOneLeftBehind
The Restart Scheme is funded by the Department for Work and Pensions.
