How can the Jobcentre Plus help you in 2021?

With all the difficulties so many of us have faced recently, we at DWP and Jobcentre Plus are more motivated than ever to help as many people as possible find work.

At the Jobcentre, we work with lots of different people including employers, training providers and local services to provide the best help we can for our customers. Whether you need help moving closer to finding work, finding your first job or coming back to work after a break, we are here to support you.

We are committed to supporting, creating and protecting jobs including the recruitment of 13,500 new work coaches by March 2021, meaning we’re able to help more people than ever. Some of our newest colleagues used to be Jobcentre Customers before they became work coaches!

We have some new and improved programmes to support jobseekers. We’re really enthusiastic about our new ground breaking Kickstart initiative. Kickstart is a job creation scheme targeted at young people who are at risk of long-term unemployment. The government will fund the creation of hundreds of thousands of high quality 6-month work placements. There is no cost to the employer, and any size or sector can be included in the scheme. We are working hard to identify employers and young people who would be suitable for the scheme, and we’ve already had 20,000 young people begin their Kickstart journey!

We are excited to have already secured thousands of placements on our Sector Based Work Academy Programme (SWAP). SWAPs help people who are ready to start work, but need a little bit of help gaining the skills and experience employers will be looking for. We partner with employers who offer our customers pre-employment training and work experience of up to 6 weeks, followed by a guaranteed interview with the employer potentially leading to a job offer.

We also have a programme called Job Entry: Targeted Support (JETS) to support our customers on Universal Credit who have been unemployed for 13 weeks or more. This voluntary programme was specifically created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the effect it has had on employment. Our work coaches will be supporting customers trying to re-enter work using a personalised, collaborative approach.

To support our customers who have been out of work for 12 months or more, we have our Restart programme. Local providers will meet with our customers fortnightly for up to a year to provide more intensive, focused support. Using in-depth knowledge of local jobs and skills markets, providers will work with community organisations, including local authorities, to deliver tailored support for individuals. This may include training to switch to growth sectors by providing support through recruitment stages, updating IT skills and / or getting the right certificates to take up a job in a different industry, such as construction or transport.

As part of the government’s plan for jobs fund, we’ve also been able to increase our Flexible Support Fund budget. Our Flexible Support Fund can help to remove financial barriers that might prevent our customers from being able to start work; for example, we can help with travel costs or fund training or education that will help our customers move closer to employment.

One of the things people might not realise about Jobcentre Plus is that it has a lot of great support for everyone.

Have you taken a look at our new JobHelp page yet? It’s got loads of great advice, hints and tips for finding and keeping work, as well as job vacancies and local support. The best part about JobHelp is it’s completely free, you don’t need to sign up and you don’t need to be a Jobcentre customer – absolutely anyone can use it!

We also have our own job search website called Find A Job which has lots of the latest vacancies, including some that may not be advertised anywhere else. You don’t need an account to browse the jobs, you’ll only need to sign up (for free!) if you decide to apply. We also have our Find A Job Employer site which supports any employer looking to recruit.

One of our most exciting and accessible offerings is our job-related Twitter feeds. These are locally focused accounts covering the entire country, so there will definitely be one relevant to you! Our Twitter pages are staffed by our friendly and knowledgeable Social Media Teams and they post lots of great job vacancies, advice and information every single day. They work closely with local employers and often have virtual job fairs. You can even chat to our Social Media Team directly by sending a direct message. Between 9am and 5pm they will reply to you within one hour. Why not have a look and see what they can do to support you?

Getting people into work is what we do and after a particularly difficult year we hope to do our bit to help the country to recover and help people back to work quickly and effectively.

Anita - Jobcentre Plus