A day in the life of a YHN Employability Officer

We’ve been speaking to Helen and Phil, two of YHN’s Employability Officers, to hear more about their role and how they help our customers.

Tell us a little bit about what you do….

Helen: “The Employability Team is in place to support our tenants who are looking for work, or a career change and as an Officer it’s our role to help as many tenants as we can to secure employment or training. We do this by recruiting tenants onto employability programmes, and helping them with training to reach a point where they are confident securing further employment when their contract ends at YHN. Since I started at YHN nearly 5 years ago the team only had about 5 members of staff, now there’s more than 15 as we have secured external contracts enabling us to help more people.”

Helen: “Although we have training sessions every week, our role is quite seasonal. Sometimes we have to sort out all the recruitment process for our trainees and apprentices, we might be at events representing YHN, we might have one-to-ones to book in for our apprentices and trainees, it’s a really varied role.”

Phil: “We help our trainees and apprentices who are on our various programmes look for an apply for job opportunities. We can sit and work with them on their personal statement and the whole application process.

“Another part of our job role is to help support in the running of other events such as job fairs or recruitment roadshows. This is a great chance for customers to learn more about local employers and their training and job opportunities.”

Helen: “We also use it as an opportunity to enrol customers on our Employability programmes, whether that be Your Homes Your Jobs, Apprenticeships or Kickstart so we can use this as a chance to get them involved in other opportunities at YHN.”

What’s the best part of your day?

Helen: “The best bit about my job is seeing the progression in people. Some come to us with low confidence or not ready to find a job but they do, and it’s lovely to see them progress and find a job.”

Phil: “One of the best things about our job is we can provide tailored support to our trainees.”

Here is a snapshot of what Employability has to offer:

• Fantastic programmes to help customers get into work
• Digital support for customers
• Apprenticeships for 16-24-year-olds
• Placements at YHN
• One-to-one support for customers

Visit Help finding a job or contact the Employability Team on 07814 753088 or employabilityteam@yhn.org.uk to find out more.