Finding Work
These tools focus on helping people find and compete for jobs, including CV builders, a practice interview website and a portfolio for older workers developed with European Equal funding.
advice-resources a Life Skills Tool, which helps identify hidden skills and boost confidence and materials to help with writing covering letters and completing application forms.
Lifelong Learning Accounts are available to all adults (aged 19 and over). Account holders have free access to a number of online tools including a skills diagnostic tool, localised course and job searches, a CV builder, an 'eligibility' checker to identify Government funding available to them, and a facility to store all their personal learner information (CVs, skills tests, job and course seaches) in one place which they can share with a careers adviser.
Skills Development Scotland offers the My Work of Work toolkit which assists people with every step of their career journey from researching careers to building CVs, discovering strengths and how they fit in with career goals. It also provides job search facilities and information on learning and training opportunities..
Similarly, Careers Wales has a CV Wizard and resources on making applications , including Interview Games, together with an e-Progress File.
Help and advice when applying for a job
Skills Health Check Tool (The National Careers Service)
Fairplay for Older Workers Skills Assessment Tool
Jobseeker SWOT Analysis (The intraining Group)
The University of Essex and Venture Navigation provide a free Online Skills Assessment tool which helps people identify their transferable skills and highlights what they should focus on when they write a CV or speak to a potential employer. It also shows areas where people could improve to develop a more rounded skill set and suggests relevant support and training.
Getting that job: making the most of your skills
Advice- resources Skills and Interests Assessment
Do's and Don'ts at an interview
Jobsite’s free, ‘Be My Interviewer’ provides practice interviews using a number of celebrity interviewers
The following websites are useful if jobseekers have to take tests before or after interview. They will help them prepare:
Typing speed test (Typeonline.co.uk)
Spelling test (UsingEnglish.com)
Spelling test (Guardian.co.uk)
Reasoning tests (University of Kent Careers Advisory Service)
Practice tests (SHL)
Information about testing (Aaron Wallis)
The Older Worker’s Portfolio Pack was developed under European Equal funding and was designed to help people 1) ‘get to know themselves’, 2) find the right direction and 3) create a learning portfolio.
The Foundation for Jobseekers has developed a toolkit showing how to set up and run a volunteer delivered job club.
Skills and employability provider Exchange Group is launching a national network of Work Clubs at 35 of their centres on 4 April 2011 in association with Jobcentre PLus. It will offer unemployed people a range of free services to hlep them improve their employability and skils which will include IAG sessions, Skills Health checks, Skills for Life and IT qualifidations, and a range of employability training modules. This brochure provides details and the location of the their Work Club centres.
Grey Hair Management helps senior professionals find employment through coaching, mentoring and personal networking. GHM charges for its service.
CivvyStreet is a Royal British Legion website which provides information on employment support for ex-Service Personnel and the dependants of someone who has served or is still serving. The support offered includes advice on skills development, career options, funding, training and starting a business. There are also two grant schemes; Be the Boss, a government scheme delivered by the Royal British Legion, to assist those want to start their own business; and grants to help the unemployed and low skilled develop skills.
Nacro is the largest charity in England and Wales dedicated to reducing crime, working with a network of partners to help over 83,000 people each year in 300 communities. Nacro's work focuses on three areas - before, during and after people are in trouble:
• Prevention - stopping young people getting into trouble, by running services to steer them away from crime, teach them new skills and create new opportunities.
• Offender Management - working with people in prison, on post-release licences and on community sentences to stop them reoffending, by providing skills and a chance to move on from crime.
• Resettlement - helping offenders cope after serving a prison sentence, so they can settle back into the community, find a place to live and a job.
Nacro's education and employment services include work-based learning for adults, supporting them to re-enter the local labour market. We have long experience in helping offenders and ex-offender to make realistic career choices, prepare them for training or employment, and prevent a return to crime. To find out more about Nacro's involvement with the Work Programme, contact chris.dare@nacro.org.uk
The Criminal Record Disclosure Calculator makes it simple to calculate when a customer's criminal record becomes ‘spent' and no longer needs to be disclosed under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (e.g. to employers and insurers), removing the discrimination which acts as a barrier to successful reintegration.
It is free for personal use but organisations must register and pay a fee. This leaflet for professionals and organisations gives more information.
The guides below provide information on the disclosure of health and disability issues when applying for work and information for ex-offenders on the disclosure of criminal records.
Your Rights to Equality at Work: When You Apply for a Job (EHRC)
Should I Disclose a Disability to a Potential Employer?
Applying for Work (with a criminal record) (Nacro)
Disclosure, Law and Practice. This guide by Nacro provides information on criminal record checks, the requirements on disclosure and the law relating to the rehabilitation of offenders.
Disclaimer
This site is for help and information only. It is not meant as an authoritative guide. It is not meant as an authoritative statement of the law, and future changes in the law and other programmes and initiatives could make it less accurate at times. TAEN, the Department for Work and Pensions and the European Social Fund take no responsibility for your use of the information. You should always take professional advice on any specific legal or financial matter.
