Making Westfield Work for you
March 18, 2011

When Westfield Stratford City opens in September, it will be the biggest urban shopping centre in Europe with around 8,500 retail jobs up for grabs. Newham Council with Westfield is working hard now to make sure residents get the most from these job opportunities – just like the people local to Westfield White City did when that retail complex opened its doors.

Programmes are already in place to make sure as many residents as possible are job-ready when Stratford City opens its doors. Our employment service Workplace has already helped almost 6,000 people into work in the past three years; but with the opening of Stratford City, Mayor Sir Robin Wales aims to get between 4,000 and 5,000 more into work this year alone – and another 1,500 on skills training courses.

Working with retailers including John Lewis, Marks and Spencer, Holiday Inn and Vue Cinemas, the council is setting up a retail and hospitality academy called The Skills Place to provide employment and training services. We are getting employers on board and have already secured the commitment of John Lewis to earmark 250 job opportunities for Newham residents who have been unemployed for more than a year

Sir Robin said: “My priority is to get as many people as possible into sustainable jobs or training. I am confident that Newham residents will benefit from a range of career opportunities at Stratford City, just like local people did when Westfield opened in White City.”

When Westfield White City opened in 2008, thousands of job opportunities were created for local residents. The Newham Mag caught up with Tania Carvalho from White City who is just one such resident now climbing the career ladder after gaining employment at the retail complex.

“I’d been unemployed since 2003 when I had my son,” she said. “I was looking for work, and I got in touch with Work Zone (the local employment service) and they got me a place on a first aid and retail skills programme

The course was really good. Because I hadn’t been working for so long it helped me get back into it, find out all the bits and bobs and learn about customer service.

“When I went for my first job interview at Westfield White City with Thoughts Cards I was very nervous. But because I’d been on the course I felt more prepared and it was lovely to get the job. “

After a while I needed to change to fulltime work so I got a job at Ecco Shoes in Westfield as team leader. Six months later I was promoted to assistant manager! I didn’t think that would happen, but I’d proved myself and I got there in the end.

“Lots of people I know work at Westfield; I’ve got three close friends who work here and I also know lots of friends of friends do. From working in the shopping centre you meet people from other shops and loads of them live locally.

“When Westfield opened all the shops were looking for people. Westfield was targeting people in the area, the job centres were always letting us know ‘that company’s looking for people, this company’s looking as well’, the newspapers were promoting it, word of mouth, websites – there were loads of jobs.

“When they were building it, Westfield talked to residents about the shopping centre and one of their promises was jobs for local people. It’s lovely being able to live near where I work, and it’s great being at work – it’s like getting your life back

Get in touch with Workplace to access current job opportunities, as well as skills courses to make sure you are job ready. Visit our training page or pop into your local branch: Stratford Boardman House, 64 Broadway; Canning Town The Place, 2 Silvertown Way; East Ham opposite Newham Town Hall, High St South.

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