Council team are certainly Getting Oldham Working!

Oldham Council's Get Oldham Working (GOW) team have now created 8,330 work-related opportunities since 2013 - and their offer to residents continues to grow.

Their original aim was to support people from Oldham with access to employment opportunities within the borough, including jobs, apprenticeships, traineeships and work experience - but that isn't all they offer now.

Here are some of the services they are now providing:

The Career Advancement Service: A programme aimed at helping those already in employment gain more skills, better pay and more secured meaningful work.

Skills for Employment: Access to one-to-one support with a Personal Learning Mentor, local training provision, a structured work placement to enhance job prospects (if needed) and access to GOW job opportunities and application support.

Oldham Council Traineeship: A great way to enhance your skills and abilities as a refresher or a complete career change via paid on-the-job training - open to all ages.

Free recruitment Service: Working with local businesses to help with their recruitment and pre-employment training to help find the best talent in Oldham.

Ageing Well Oldham: Support for anyone over 50 who is seeking career advice, information on enterprise development, and health and wellbeing guidance.

Jobs boards, fairs and clubs: Including the online Get Oldham Working Jobs Board, biannual Jobs Fairs and specialist employer events and clubs.

Councillor Shaid Mushtaq, Cabinet Member for Employment and Skills, said: "Over the last five years Get Oldham Working has worked extremely hard to offer residents vital support to help them gain employment, plus access to training and information on how they can best enhance their careers.

"Over the years we've done our bit by helping residents access new jobs and career opportunities, a prime example being our most recent jobs fair at the Queen Elizabeth Hall which more than 2,500 people attended.

"We want businesses to continue working with us to provide apprenticeships, training opportunities, work placements and jobs for our residents because if we all work together we can help to boost our local economy."

GOW is more accessible to residents than ever before now with opportunities to contact the team via social media (Facebook: @GetOldhamWorking / Twitter: @EmployOldham), as well as face-to-face appointments.

The GOW team are located on the first floor of Metropolitan Place, Hobson Street, Oldham, OL1 1TT - across the road from the Job Centre Plus - and operate an 'open door' policy.

This means residents of working age can go along - without an appointment - and speak to a careers advisor, weekdays 9am until 4pm.

You can also reach the team by email: employability@oldham.gov.uk or by telephone on 0161 770 4674.

There is also plenty of information on their website at: www.oldham.gov.uk/gow

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