Skills

NEW FUND FOR INVESTMENT IN LOCAL SKILLS AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

The government’s new UK Community Renewal Fund will allocate up to £3m for innovative projects in Herefordshire over the next year. Herefordshire has been chosen as one of 100 places across the UK to receive funding through the government’s £220m UK Community Renewal Fund, for investment in skills development, communities, businesses and improve local employment opportunities. The county has been highlighted as a priority place for investment based on an index of economic resilience across Great Britain, which measures productivity, household income, unemployment, skills and population density. Investment and support that is tailored to address the challenges faced at a local level is essential to tackle disadvantage, ensure that everyone has the skills they need to take advantage of the opportunities available and enable local economic growth. With up to £3m available for investment locally, Herefordshire Council (as the designated lead authority) is inviting voluntary and community sector organisations, education providers and business groups to submit proposals for innovative pilot projects that address local challenges, develop skills and support people into work. Any organisation interested in submitting a proposal should visit the council website at www.herefordshire.

gov.uk/communityrenewalfund or

email CommunityRenewalFund@ herefordshire.gov.uk for further information on the application process. The council will assess all submitted applications and shortlisted proposals will be submitted to the government in June for approval. Approved projects will be delivered between Autumn 2021 and March 2022. Further information about the UK Community Renewal Fund can be found on the gov.uk website: www.gov.uk/

government/publications/uk-communityrenewal-fund-prospectus.

NEW CAREER OPPORTUNITIES WEBSITE LAUNCHED FOR WORCESTERSHIRE

The Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and Worcestershire County Council have launched the new Worcestershire Jobs website to help people find new career opportunities within the county. The new website works by collating local job, training courses, further educational courses or apprenticeship listings on job sites and displays them in one place. This helps to speed up the searching process for residents or those interested in working in Worcestershire. Businesses in the county do not need to do anything differently with their job posting as the Worcestershire Jobs website is able to refresh and display new opportunities as they are listed across multiple job sites. Users can even filter their results based on location or on keywords such as skills or industries (i.e. Marketing Jobs). This is set to help people easily find jobs, training options and educational courses that are relevant to them. Find out more and visit the website by following the link below.

www.worcestershirejobs.co.uk

LOCKDOWN FUELS MORE CREATIVITY FOR HAIRDRESSING STUDENTS AND TUTORS AT EVESHAM COLLEGE

Evesham College hairdressing students have been getting creative after the closure of non-essential services affected their access to accessories. Students on the Level 2 hairdressing course can usually be found around Evesham in retailers sourcing eye-catching accessories to use in their college work. With the country in lockdown this wasn’t possible, so tutors set the students the task of creating their own accessories at home. Each week the students at Evesham College, which is part of college group WCG, have been creating a different origami flower to use in their bridal hair styles. Lecturers have given weekly tutorials on how to create the wide range of flowers – all made with the resources students have at home. Lily-Rose Hewitt, one of the students on the course, said: “It has been a good challenge, it’s difficult to do what we would normally do because of the pandemic and we’ve made the best out of a hard situation. “I’ve always been interested in hairdressing and hope after finishing the course to work in a salon and go on to work in celebrity hair. “We’ve got a good class dynamic and while learning in lockdown has been hard, it’s forced us to be more creative. “The unit we have been doing is bridal hair and creating the origami rose was fun, we’ve just used coloured paper, glue and selotape to make the flowers.” Lecturer Sarah Jones, who has worked in the department at the college for more than 10 years, says this is the first time they have ever encouraged students to make their own accessories and that she hopes to continue this after the pandemic.

www.wcg.ac.uk/study

Lecturer Sarah Jones