At our Annual Conference and Exhibition 2010, Employment Minister Chris Grayling MP urged CIPD members and the wider HR community to 'Get to work with the Work Programme'.
Since then we have been working with the Government to involve HR in getting young people and the long-term unemployed into sustainable work. Our primary focus at the moment is a 12 month volunteer mentoring pilot we are running with our Coventry and Warwickshire branch.
About the pilot
CIPD is working with Jobcentre Plus to bring together HR practitioners and young job seekers in a mutually beneficial mentoring relationship.
HR professionals are equipped with the perfect knowledge and skills to help young job seekers improve their employability, develop their work-related knowledge and skills, and become 'work-ready'. Typically, as an HR professional, you will have:
- knowledge of the skills and attibutes employers look for
- mentoring and coaching skills
- knowledge of recruitment processes and 'job-related' skills such as interview techniques.
Listen to our podcast about the scheme - Pathways back to work: HR's role
We are now looking to roll out a nationwide model for member volunteering, which we hope will engage several thousand members. We hope that CIPD members and the wider HR community will volunteer their time and efforts to support young people in their search for employment, benefitting in turn from developing their coaching skills and giving back to their local community.
What's in it for me?
Members will benefit from a range of individual, professional and organisational gains. Being involved in the scheme will provide lots of opportunities to develop mentoring and coaching skills and enhance your organisation's reputation in the local area.
How can I get involved?
If you think you have what it takes to mentor a young person, then why not become a mentor yourself? For a small time commitment of 1 hour a week for 6 weeks, you could really make a difference to the employment prospects and self-confidence of a young person in your region. It only takes a couple of minutes to fill in our member registration form. You will also gain access to our specially created mentoring portal, full of resources to help you during the initiative.
Even if you do not want to become a mentor yourself, there are other ways you can assist this project.
- Are there others in your HR team who would be great mentors and would be willing to get involved?
- Are you able to provide office space for one or two hours a week for other mentors in the region?
- If you don't feel that a mentoring role is right for you, why not take on a young jobseeker for work experience?
Read our guidance Work experience placements that work for more information on offering work experience:
If you would like to get involved or have any questions, please contact Kelly Duncan, Project Executive
What else are we doing?
As well as the Coventry pilot and our work experience guidance, CIPD recently hosted an event with A4e (Action for Employment), a major welfare-to-work provider, to discuss how how and why employers should recruit from the long-term unemployed.
We were joined by the Employment Minister and a number of senior HR directors from organisations across the sectors. As a result of the event, a number of employers have pledged to work with welfare-to-work providers in their future recruitment activity.