Jobs and Skills Service celebrates best-ever results

Together with its partner organisations, the Service – which is part of Hartlepool Community Hubs – supports residents to progress into long-term jobs alongside offering high-quality learning opportunities to meet the demands of local employers.

The Service’s Jobs and Skills Hubs are the residents’ ‘front door’ to personalised support including career guidance, qualifications, learning opportunities and work placements. Over the past 18 months, the Service has delivered more than 5,000 interventions, supporting over 2,200 people, and helping over 450 to find jobs.

The Adult Skills programme offers a wide range of courses covering literacy, numeracy, and digital skills alongside qualifications to provide jobs in key sectors such as health and social care, education, and early years. Meanwhile, the Learning for Inclusion programme offers informal activities – such as woodturning, cooking, and horticulture - designed to help tackle social isolation, bring communities together and encourage family learning and better health.

The results for these for the 2023/24 academic year were the Service’s highest for over a decade, with 1,470 enrolments and an achievement rate of 89.5% - well above the national benchmark.

Since the end of 2022, Hartlepool Jobs and Skills has also been the lead body for the Tees Valley Multiply Programme, which has already helped over 4,000 adults understand and use maths in their daily lives across Tees Valley.

The Hartlepool Youth Hub is another of its key services, offering intensive support to unemployed young people aged 18 to 24, and over the last three years the Youth Hub has supported over 600 young people and helped over 200 into work.

The Jobs and Skills Service is externally funded through several channels including via Tees Valley Combined Authority – the Adult Skills Fund and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund – plus Jobcentre Plus.

Councillor Pamela Hargreaves, Chair of the Council’s Economic Growth & Regeneration Committee, said: “These are outstanding results, and I congratulate everyone involved with the Jobs and Skills Service and – not least – all the residents who have achieved so much thanks to its support.

“A key aim of the Council is to grow our local economy and to ensure that residents have the best possible opportunities to gain the skills they need, creating a local workforce that can thrive in new jobs, sectors, and industries.

“Our fantastic Jobs and Skills Service is a cornerstone of that.”

For more information about Hartlepool Jobs and Skills, drop into your nearest Community Hub, call 01429 868616, visit www.hartlepooljobsandskills.com or email jobs.skills@hartlepool.gov.uk.