Context
Government funding became available to deliver Kickstart programmes to reduce unemployment within the region. The University signed up to the scheme in October 2020 initially taking 30 Kickstart placements across the University for a period of 6 months. The aims behind this project were to identify unemployed graduates to provide in-depth employability training and work experience and to identify a talent pipeline for the university.
By the end of the scheme the University of Huddersfield had taken 66 in total, of which 29 were offered permanent contracts with the University and 48 (72%) secured permanent employed roles. These were candidates that were often facing barriers to employment and had significant periods of time out of work. Roles spanned across HR departments, IT departments, academic schools, Student services and the international office. The University of Huddersfield saw an opportunity to support the local community and create a foundation to leapfrog the individuals into work as evidenced in the data this was a success. Out of the 66, 17 had an EDI category, disability, sexuality, disadvantage and of those 9 were recruited by the university
Action & approach
Collaboration took place with the local Job centre investing time in being present to discuss the roles with job coaches and onsite activity to speak to job searchers. The project was managed centrally by careers and employability and all recruiting managers had shared responsibility with careers to provide an intensive period of training and development. Weekly training schedules were delivered covering all aspects of employability with some key remits to have a quality CV, professional linked in and complete LinkedIn learning.
The placements were grouped into cohorts with each cohort operating as a peer support system. Weekly check in meetings took place to understand what employability activity had taken place and how effective it was and this was shared with the cohort. Celebration events took place upon each person securing a role. Key subject matter experts provided insights into a variety of roles. Some candidates opted for further study routes.
Impact
66 placements were offered across 10 different departments, 29 were offered permanent contracts with the University and 48 (72%) secured permanent employed roles. Both recruiting managers and placement colleagues rated the project as a positive experience. One candidate has commenced post graduate study in Careers guidance and has had two progressions up the salary scales. The Job Centre were delighted with the results. We were able to evaluate prior to the programme levels of confidence and post placement and saw a significant increase.
Conclusions & advice
As a result of this project funding ending we could not re model the exact programme however internal opportunities have been created under a ‘lend a hand scheme’ we identified a need for the University to fill short term vacancies and these are now advertised to international students seeking work. The process for advertising vacancies has been improved and uses digital forms part of the learning from the Kickstart project. Lessons learned are with a dedicated schedule of training and development, a peer support network and funding offered to organisations those that have been unemployed can gain successful employment.
