THERE are a lot of new opportunities for jobseekers at Bude Jobcentre Plus.

Hoping to recreate the success of the first session in Launceston, Jobcentre Plus in Bude has provided its own ‘Mentoring Circle’ for unemployed young people aged 18 to 24.

The idea of a Mentoring Circle is about connecting and engaging with employers who have given up their time to mentor young people and help them understand and navigate through applications and interviews.

Katherine Davey, Jobcentre Plus employer adviser for Bude and Launceston, set up the Mentoring Circle in Launceston as part of a national drive to get young people into employment. The scheme has now been offered to young people in Bude, providing them with an opportunity to get hands-on experience in a local place of work.

Katherine said: “It’s a brilliant opportunity to have face-to-face contact with a local employer.”

The job centre is also pleased to be promoting ‘Hospitality Works’ which is a nationally recognised campaign delivered by DWP with support from hospitality trade bodies; UK Hospitality, Springboard and British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA).

Officially in its tenth year, Hospitality Works has been increasing in its reach and impact year on year.

For Hospitality Works 2020 the job centre wanted to be ambitious, innovative and creative in what it did, creating opportunities for customers that have meaningful, positive impact and focus on how disability confident commitments can translate into opportunities for customers and inspire new disability confident sign ups with the local and national employers the job centre works with.

With all of this in mind, Bude Jobcentre Plus teamed up with Gerald and Julie Banks at Access Training to offer courses in food safety, customer service and personal licence holders for eligible jobseekers.

This has put people in a great place to be able to apply to the number of hospitality jobs which are already starting to appear with local holiday parks and restaurants already looking for seasonal staff.

As part of this Gerald and Julie put together a bespoke ‘Bude Hospitality Project’. This project has been specially timed in readiness for the coming season, and links in with the Hospitality Works 2020 campaign. Feedback received so far from participants has included ‘Brilliant course — excellent tutoring and great to achieve the certificates’, and ‘I enjoyed the course, I hope it will help me get a job — it was well done’.

Speaking about the project Sue Kessell, manager at Bude Jobcentre, said: “Through this project we have been able to offer a package of training leading to level 2 certificates in customer service, food safety and personal licence holder. This will give job seekers in Bude, especially the younger ones with little work experience, an excellent range of skills that should really help them to gain employment.

“So far we already know that seventeen people have been successful in the customer service training, and we are eagerly awaiting the results of the other two courses. The best result of all would now be for local employers to contact us to offer interviews to our successful trainees. That really would put a smile on many faces!”

For more information about the courses and support available visit Bude Jobcentre Plus.