Collaboration between Liverpool City Council and social enterprise provide green jobs and training
For months now, politicians and commentators have been harping on about how green jobs can provide both a way to tackle climate change and an avenue for unemployed people to find a new career. Finally, we are starting to see some action in this vein, and it’s in the north that the initiative is being taken.
In Kensington, Liverpool, the award-winning Clean Team is already a common sight for residents, as the team ensures green spaces and communal gardens are tended too. Now, the team is set to become even more prolific.
Three more members have been added to the team, selected from 43 applications for the positions. This just goes to show how keen people are to move into a popular, stable and expanding environmental sector.
The scheme isn’t just a way to keep the city clean and provide jobs; those three new team members will start NVQ level 2 qualifications in amenity horticulture too, plus health and safety, risk assessment and manual handling training.
This was all achieved by collaboration with Riverside landlords, keen to keep the land around their properties green; Local Solutions, a social enterprise that provides services in various areas such as training, anti-bullying initiatives, crime prevention and much more; and Liverpool City Council’s Transitional Employment Programme.
The scheme exemplifies what great changes can be made to the way we work in the UK through green and ethical industries. Not only has this programme provided jobs and training for local people, as well as cleaning up the area; it has also encouraged collaboration between local landlords, the City Council, and social enterprises. It seems that a fresh approach to the environment has fostered a fresh approach to valuing employees, providing them with training that will not only help them to do their job, but also empower them to move forward in a green career with training that can easily be built on. As well as that, it’s a fresh approach in terms of business, with a social enterprise rather than a traditional business providing services. Let’s hope that fresh approach is taken up in more areas to provide green jobs to people eager to work and develop careers in the environmental sector.
Author
Rachel Charman, a writer for JuicyJobs; Ethical Jobs UK – an environmentally friendly green job search board which offers free job listings to Environmental, NGO’s, NFP’s and ethical companies promoting green, fair trade services and support sustainable living. For job seekers Juicyjobs can help you find the ideal ethical jobs in the UK.
Giving staff the chance to take on volunteering jobs will pay back in the end
Volunteering charity TimeBank reports this week that employees are reluctant to ask for time off work to volunteer.
This is hardly surprising given the current struggle businesses are in to stay afloat during the recession. Put yourself in a manager’s position; would you rather that your staff take a week off to clean waterways and work with vulnerable children, or stay at work and make as much money as possible for their wages?
It seems like a no-brainer, but taking a closer look, it might not be. TimeBank conducted a survey through a well-known jobs website, bringing in 3,000 responses from staff and jobseekers, as well as 500 employers themselves. Two-thirds of employees and job-seekers said that they were “worried” about asking for the time off to volunteer.
Here’s the tricky part. 83% of employers said that they see voluntary work as valuable experience. That’s something we at JuicyJobs have been saying for a while; a volunteering job can boost your ethical job search enormously, with skills, experience and contacts to boot. Half of the employers in the survey also said, however, that they felt their employees were afraid to ask for the time off.
Now, what’s going on here? Those employers value volunteering jobs, and know their employees might want to volunteer. They also know their employees might not want to come forward. Either, those 50% of employers would rather keep things that way, thank you very much, or they are missing a great opportunity to invest in their staff.
According to Helen Walker, chief executive of TimeBank, volunteering is a great way to boost morale amongst staff. So, if employers are also aware of this, why not give employees the gentle, supporting shove they need to make it all happen?
Some businesses are already cashing in on the benefits of sending their staff volunteering together. Ford Motor Company, whilst not exactly a bastion of green jobs or ethical careers, regularly sends teams of Ford workers out on volunteering schemes with children’s charities, where those workers’ skills are put to good use in, say, refurbishing children’s playgrounds at hospices. In this case, the company pays the staff for the day, and so is effectively donating a days’s work to charity, but a similar principle applies.
If companies across the board were to adopt staff volunteering schemes, think of the long term benefits. Organising set projects for staff to volunteer on would make it much easier for staff to access volunteering, without fearing a rebuke for asking for time off. Staff volunteering together would help to build good working relationships between teams, and, when those staff members return, they might just feel a little more refreshed and ready after breaking the daily grind for a while. In the end, think about the long-term benefits; giving employees a few days off per year for them to come back energised and enthusiastic, whilst making the business look great, can only be good news.
Author
Rachel Charman, a writer for JuicyJobs; Ethical Jobs UK – an environmentally friendly green job search board which offers free job listings to Environmental, NGO’s, NFP’s and ethical companies promoting green, fair trade services and support sustainable living. For job seekers Juicyjobs can help you find the ideal ethical jobs in the UK.
Volunteering on the rise in the tough areas
There have been stories in the news lately about the rise in volunteering since the recession hit. We have seen volunteer centers unable to cope with the demand for volunteering jobs, and seen people previously employed in middle to high ranking jobs become unemployed and opt for volunteering whilst they look for more work.
Volunteering may seem like a soft option for some. The volunteering jobs that spring to mind are things like assisting in a classroom, clearing a river of rubbish, or driving the elderly to the supermarket, and many have assumed that these are the areas that the new wave of volunteers have charged into as they seek to boost their employment credentials.
This, it seems, is not quite the case, or at least, not completely. Some volunteers have thrown themselves in at the deep end with “hardcore” volunteering.
The British Red Cross announced that volunteering enquiries have quadrupled over the past year. The average of 300 per month in 2008 has risen to 1,400 per month now. A spokesperson from the charity also said that the majority of enquiries in March and April 2009 came from young people.
All of this is fantastic news. Just when people are relying on charities the most – during a recession – others are volunteering their time. This is particularly relevant when charities are struggling due to a decreased rate of donations.
Meanwhile, the British Red Cross has been so inundated by enquiries that it has had to increase its ranks. Maryanne Burton, head of volunteering for the charity, said that it had increased the number of internships and volunteering roles to make the best use of everyone who wished to help.
Volunteering may not bring home the bacon right now, but it does help to lay the track for a fantastic future in an ethical job or a public sector career. If you are unemployed, looking to retrain or simply want to learn new skills, a volunteering job could be just right for you. Give it a try!
Author
Rachel Charman, a writer for JuicyJobs; Ethical Jobs UK – an environmentally friendly green job search board which offers free job listings to Environmental, NGO’s, NFP’s and ethical companies promoting green, fair trade services and support sustainable living. For job seekers Juicyjobs can help you find the ideal ethical jobs in London.
Ladies flash girl power in volunteering jobs – but are they making the most of it?
According to a new survey from YouthNet and v, women overwhelmingly dominate volunteering jobs.
In today’s world, where men still command the greater majority of top executive positions and consistently get paid more than women working at the same level, it’s certainly refreshing to see women shining through in at least one area. The survey throws up the question, however, of whether volunteers of either gender are getting the best they can from volunteering.
The survey, which was completed by 925 volunteers and carried out by do-it.org, showed that 72% of respondents are female. Perhaps predictably, it also said that the most popular area to volunteer in was education or other forms of working with children, whilst working with prisoners and ex-offenders was the least popular.
Up until this point, it seems all well and good, until we discover that 10% of volunteers find their placements “boring”, and a further one in ten said that their placements were “disorganised”.
So what is going on here? Women, who are statistically disadvantaged in the jobs market, even in hip and progressive green careers, are attempting to boost their employment credentials by taking on volunteering jobs, which provide experience and contacts. That’s positive, but then, volunteers are gravitating – perhaps through preference, perhaps due to sexist expectation – towards teaching and working with children. On top of this, a sizeable proportion is bored with disorganised placements, which implies that volunteers are not getting a great deal out of it at all.
There are a few problems here. Perhaps volunteers do not realise the sheer range of volunteering that is available out there, in all sectors, and simply slip into the classroom assistant role. Despite the earlier jibes about men dominating everything, why are men only a small minority in the volunteering sector?
It may all boil down to the same problem; a lack of positive representation in the ether about volunteering. From this picture, women volunteer to boost their experience, but men, with their statistical employment advantage, disregard it as they do not need any more help. Further, due to the relatively low profile of volunteering, volunteers stick in a position that bores and frustrates them, instead of choosing a different role from a wide range of options.
What we need to solve this problem is a greater drive to attract interest in volunteering positions. This has already started, with various government officials and ministers supporting volunteering projects, but more needs to be made of the variety of volunteering jobs out there, and the benefits – aside from CV buffing – that a volunteering job can bring.
Author
Rachel Charman, a writer for JuicyJobs; Ethical Jobs UK – an environmentally friendly green job search board which offers free job listings to Environmental, NGO’s, NFP’s and ethical companies promoting green, fair trade services and support sustainable living. For job seekers Juicyjobs can help you find the ideal ethical jobs in London.
Boris promotes green volunteering (and takes a dive)
You may think that London Mayor Boris Johnson is less suited to controlling one of the world’s most powerful cities and more to, well, just bumbling about, really. This month, however, Boris was able to combine his two roles in a particularly amusing way.
In order to promote volunteering, Boris was present at a clean-up project at the River Pool in Lewisham. The project was run by charity Thames21, which is committed to ridding London’s waterways of pollution and stagnation.
Whilst striding about importantly in the river, rolling up his sleeves and helping other volunteers pull out harmful plant Himalayan balsam, Boris stumbled into a deeper patch of the water and sank chest deep into the murky liquid.
As one on-looker proclaimed the tumble as “classic” of the Mayor, volunteers rushed to the floppy-haired-one’s aid. During an interview later, Boris said:
“In order to promote this (volunteering), I took the maybe ultimate sacrifice. I decided to fall in a very spectacular way.”
It wasn’t all self-deprecating joke, however; Boris had a serious message about volunteering. He said:
“Volunteering is good for individuals and great for London in tough economic times.
“By giving your time, whether a one-off few hours or a regular commitment, we can both help to make the capital a more civilised, pleasant place and reap the rewards of putting something back into the communities in which we live.”
Boris did not mention how useful volunteering, especially in an environmental project, can work wonders for your CV if you are looking to get into a green job or an ethical career. The experience and contacts gained are invaluable, so get volunteering and get on the ladder!
Author
Rachel Charman, a writer for JuicyJobs; Ethical Jobs UK – an environmentally friendly green job search board which offers free job listings to Environmental, NGO’s, NFP’s and ethical companies promoting green, fair trade services and support sustainable living. For job seekers Juicyjobs can help you find the ideal ethical jobs in London.
