Every little helps!

Tesco pledges: jobs for the unemployed

OLDHAM’S long-term unemployed have been given a Christmas boost with 100 jobs exclusively available to them at the town’s new flagship Tesco.

The supermarket giant is looking to help people stuck on benefits into work and give them a brighter future amid the economic gloom.

Single parents, older people who have been made redundant and young people who have never worked, are being targeted in a special scheme at the supermarket, being built to replace an existing store on Huddersfield Road.

It has been designated a ‘regeneration partnership’ store, promising huge employment opportunities for locals.

The scheme brings together organisations including Oldham Council, the Learning Skills Council, Jobcentre Plus and Oldham College to focus on training and employing people who have been out of work for more than six months.

The store’s existing staff are now working from a temporary store, or other Tescos in the region, and will be the first employees to start when it opens next year. The partnership will help to overcome obstacles that often stop people getting a job, such as low levels of numeracy and literacy skills and people with disabilities, with the promise that, provided a recruit finishes the 8-12 week training programme, they will be guaranteed a job.

Bosses say no other UK employer matches the guarantee.

Tesco’s regeneration partnership manager, Jo Frith, said: “Tesco’s approach to regeneration partnership stores is based on our conviction that neighbourhood renewal is not just about physical regeneration but also about providing sustainable job opportunities.”

The scheme has already seen more than 4,000 long-term unemployed and disadvantaged people, in some of the most deprived areas of Britain, recruited.

A hotline has been launched for people to sign up to open days which run from January 5-9. People who have been out of work for more than six months can register now by calling 0161 253 3555. A second stage of recruitment for further jobs, open to everyone, will begin in February.