Nottinghamshire Business Does Care

Businesses from across Nottinghamshire in conjunction with Nottinghamshire Cares Ready 4 Work Programme are successfully helping people with barriers to employment into work. 

Royal Mail is uniquely placed at the heart of the community.   We are committed to recruiting from socially excluded groups

Nottinghamshire Cares is a Business in the Community initiative designed to get local businesses and their employees involved in a range of Community projects.

The Ready 4 Work programme places people from disadvantaged backgrounds with employers with the aim of providing participants with the opportunity to learn essential skills, enabling them to enter the job market and consequently achieve independent living.

Through the programme this year 32 people have been placed with Nottinghamshire employers with 22 securing full time employment as a result.  As a result of our most recent placements in September 2007, 8 out of 13 participants were offered employment.

The programme is supported by a number of Nottinghamshire based organisations who not only provide two week work placements but also support job coach training for mentors, host courses to prepare participants for their placements and help with training in recruitment and interview techniques.  Nottinghamshire organisations involved in the programme include Eversheds, Royal Mail, Gala Coral Group, Ernst & Young and Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

Lynne Wilson Area General Manager for Royal Mail in the East Midlands and Chair of the Leadership Team at Nottinghamshire Cares said: “Royal Mail is uniquely placed at the heart of the community.   We are committed to recruiting from socially excluded groups giving us the opportunity to; diversify our workforce, support people into meaningful employment and give our people an opportunity to contribute through mentoring and buddying.”

Filomena Fernandes, a young mum who’s recently participated in the programme and was placed with Royal Mail said, "My confidence has gone from 0 to near 100%. It gave me some strength and some hope about getting a job. The placement made me feel happy and complete to be working again, just back to normal life. On the programme I knew I was doing something that would be good for my future."