Employment Coach

Employment Coach

Salary: £31,000

Hours: Full Time

Type: Permanent

Location: Milton Keynes

Role

As an Employment Coach, you will be supporting individuals to progress into their chosen career paths by providing advice, support and guidance by use of assessments and implementing tailored support plans, which would need to be smart, tailored to individual needs.

Key Responsibilities

• Working with participants face to face, you will coach and support their journey to employment by providing employability sessions, interview skills advice, job search method, re-building participant confidence following a period of unemployment and identifying correct interventions that will remove barriers and enable them to regain employment as monthly targets will be a part of your role for you to achieve.
• Working with diagnostic screening, assessments and skills analysis will be critical to the guidance you provide, allowing participants to consider all options available to them to gain employment.
• To be familiar with the local area labour market, training opportunities and relevant support agencies is essential for success in the role. You will get to know the local employers in your community, understanding what they are looking for in an employee and encouraging them to interview your participant.
• Meet and support clients to understand their key skills, aspirations and goals through completing a Vocational Profile and produce an Action Plan to help them obtain and sustain competitive employment. This includes support with their job search, CV production, application forms, interview techniques and career development.
• Assess client’s support needs related to work which may include benefits/welfare advice, disclosure of mental health symptoms etc., and provide support & guidance.
• Attend weekly clinical team meetings as an embedded IPS practitioner.
• Source job opportunities for clients through tailored job search and regular contact with local employers to explore hidden as well as advertised employment opportunities.
• Provide education and support to employers, as agreed with the individual, which may include negotiating adjustments, return to work strategy and on-going contact with the employer to ensure job retention.
• Build relationships with colleagues in clinical teams to engage and generate referrals and create collaborative working partnerships with clinical staff (promoting employment as a positive intervention in the recovery journey).
• Once employment has been secured continue to provide quality service through conducting regular visits, effective monitoring and in-work support to clients and employers to help sustain employment.
• Spend time getting to know local employers, in order to negotiate job opportunities that meet each individual’s strengths, needs, abilities and preferences.
• To challenge inequalities experienced by clients and address existing discrimination, whilst ensuring a process of learning for the organisation
• Work with employers to promote the service, identify job opportunities and ensure appropriate strategies are in place to reduce barriers in the work place – this can include exploring ‘job carving’ i.e. carving small slices of work from the duties other staff do not have time to do.

Skills/Knowledge and Experience

• Experience in providing one-to-one support or coaching and positively influencing other people’s professional or personal development.
• Experience of working in the employment and skills sector and delivering to specified targets, quality standards and compliance measures is essential.
• Experience of using motivational and action planning techniques to manage the progression of participants into sustainable work opportunities.
• The empathy it takes to engage with all sorts of people, and the confidence to challenge them if you need to.
• The ability to handle complex cases at the same time in an environment where you will have targets to achieve.
• The need to be organised and be able to manage time effectively and ensure monthly targets are achieved.
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to motivate and inspire others.
• An influencing approach, especially when it comes to bringing other people around to your way of thinking.
• The need to have a good understanding of the local and regional labour market.
• A practical understanding of the recruitment and selection processes.
• You should be comfortable to do some local travel, and using a range of digital channels including phone, video conferencing and email.
• Good administration, IT and good experience of using MS office software.