Minister takes a new direction

Adam Hewitt • Published 21 Sep 2009 09:00 0 Comments

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OUT-OF-WORK managers are being helped to get back into work.

South East minister Jonathan Shaw visited Reading's New Directions employment service in Station Road and met people recently made redundant and those trying to help them. But he also heard about the town's executive jobs club, which runs alongside traditional job hunting programmes to help those who may never have been unemployed before.

Peter Pearson has been running the Reading club since June, having already had success with the scheme in Newbury and Windsor.

He said: "When people are in the job market, it's a very lonely place and terribly useful to have a point of reference and come along and chat through their issues. It's motivational and we offer practical help for job hunting, which is an art not a science."

He said the sessions could be useful for anyone, but that they are mostly aimed at managers, professionals and executives.

Glyn Crowther, from Tilehurst, worked in financial services in Reading until he was made redundant in May.

He found himself cast adrift in an unfamiliar world, but said: "The executive jobs club really put me on the road to getting a job, the one-to-one help was fantastic. I'd never really been unemployed before and had never had to go through the traditional route to getting a job, they tended to come through word-of-mouth.

"But the jobs club made me much more confident to go out and sell myself, which was quite alien to me. There's a real camaraderie there, so you don't feel quite so isolated and can meet other people who have been through that experience."

He got a job at New Directions itself as a receptionist but has now climbed back onto the managerial ladder as head of external relations at the Jobcentre in Cheapside.

Mr Shaw also spoke to teenagers on Thames Valley University's e2e programme who are unsure about their future.

He said: "The message is there are people who can help. I left school in the 1980s when it was really difficult to find a job, but in Reading today there is lots of help on offer."

Contact New Directions on 0845 842 0012.

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