Jewel adapts to Covid19

Jewel has its busiest few months to date

The Jewel Foundation has seen a huge increase in the demand for its services over the last few months. Jewel’s employment, training and business support service has embarked on a range of projects to support the Manchester Community and beyond through these challenging times.

Although their centre is closed to the public all Jewel services have continued remotely.

Through partnerships with local colleges they have been able to offer online courses in varied topics such as Microsoft Office at 3 levels (Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced), Accounting for Business delivered through Sage University, and Adult Social Care. To date 115 people have enrolled in these courses.

Jewel’s “Get Digital” project funded through the Coronavirus Community Support Fund, distributed by the National Lottery Community Fund, has enabled people with no previous digital skills to access these online courses and also connect with families and friends through filtered and managed devices.

In addition, Jewel are starting a range of “routes into employment” workshops with large employers such as NHS, Greater Manchester Police and Metrolink. These workshops will be an opportunity for people to hear about how they can access these opportunities and gain the necessary skills and qualifications alongside their employment. Interest in these workshops has been huge with participants registered from across the UK.

Jewel have also partnered with Salford Council and the DWP to ensure residents aged 18 – 24 who are unemployed can enrol on the Government’s Kickstart programme and have a wide range of employers willing to offer a 6-month job placement.

These projects complement the existing activities of JEWEL, mainly careers advice, skills assessments, job placements and a range of workshops such as CV writing, interview techniques and job searching.

Trustee, Pinchos Corn praised the Jewel staff for adjusting so quickly to the new working requirements and for being able to provide such a high quality service to the Community, adapting it to the specific needs of local people.

Plans for the coming month include advancing the business support that Jewel offers to both existing businesses and start-ups to ensure they have a robust business plan to see them through the challenges of Covid19. This initiative will include a range of business workshops and courses, including Marketing, Sales and the use of social media.