Workplace is a recruitment centre in Newham that is committed to helping employers find the right local people to work for them and to supporting local people who want those jobs. Our free service is on offer to Newham residents and employers across London.
Workplace celebrates its first birthday
May 30, 2008
Mayor of Newham, Sir Robin Wales and executive member for business partnerships and skills, Councillor Alec Kellaway, joined staff and clients to celebrate by cutting a huge birthday cake.
The project has gone from strength to strength since it was launched a year ago. The free customised recruitment and training service has supported more than 660 job seekers into work and 920 people into training.
Workplace provides a pool of well-trained and reliable staff for businesses that are benefiting from growing opportunities in the borough, including the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Workplace operates two new pilot schemes, which tackle some of the obstacles that residents come up against when looking for work. This includes housing, where residents on Housing Benefit fear being financially worse off or losing their home through taking up employment. Workplace offers expert advice about benefits, tax credits and debit issues.
Another pilot scheme, which was launched by the Mayor last year, was to get people on long term benefits into work. Sir Robin Wales said: "Workplace has achieved a lot in a year and it's been a great start but it's just a start.
In order for our residents to fully benefit from all the regeneration projects in the borough, we have to increase the number of people we help through Workplace by ten. That's a huge challenge, to get thousands of people into work that might not have even worked before.