Getting more Londoners into good jobs

Room For Work Career Development Course in Richmond was very helpful to me. After I finished the course, I felt more confident, I improved my communication skills, enhanced my CV and had a clearer idea of what I wanted to do for work. I could not recommend enough. 

It sometimes feels like the system in the UK rewards staying on benefits over working easy. For some, living in a council house and receiving Universal Credit can seem like a better deal than working full-time and paying high rent and tax. Meanwhile, new immigrants are often expected to start working right away, contributing taxes that help fund a growing welfare system before they can do so. 

This raises real questions about fairness and long-term sustainability. We might not need a system that encourages work, supports those in real need, and treats everyone — newcomers and long-time residents — with fairness and dignity.

Personally I benefited from "Room for Work" that equips job hunters aged 40+ in SW London.  Hope that more people can benefit from it in the future.

I benefited immensely from the Richmond wellbeing NHS team, who enrolled me with their employment counsellor as well as CBT courses.

I was not aware of this until I raised the wellbeing self referral form and had my initial assessment.

Wish the brilliant support is highlighted and promoted, to help with situations like mine.

Itis important to keep a record of the Neets especially, in London and other areas.  Statistically, Neets are a major challenge for jobcentres and employers. Itis worth noting that as things stand British productivity growth and economic growth is slow by OECD standards. There is the new area of green jobs as well.

In person support can be very effective, my experience is that I realise my own answers simply by talking it out with someone who can be neutral and happy to listen. 

You need to get a better idea of the impact of AI on jobs and careers, so as to help people into jobs and skills training that will not be totally redundant activities rather too soon. All sorts of jobs and roles, and self-employed/freelancers, are being put out of work by AI. 

Preparing people for careers, skills training, a lifetime of work, should start much younger than it does in schools. At the top of junior school for sure. They need to get a wider understanding of what the subjects being studied can lead to at college, at university and in terms of jobs and careers. They need a better idea of what the possibilities are in the world of work, and what subjects help them towards which areas. 

My thoughts as a mid-career professional with 11 years' work experience in a public sector financial services job, who has been unemployed since last year and unable to secure interviews, let alone a job.

1. The job market is changing so rapidly that candidates and recruitment agents alike are struggling. I know this from personal experience and from asking recruitment agents.

Candidates who follow traditional CV-writing advice may be disadvantaged by the widespread deployment of ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems, e.g. Workday, Success Factors, Oracle Cloud, etc.) which may use machine learning algorithms to filter out CVs without human interaction.

Candidates must therefore become aware of the problem and then seek out guidance online on how to prepare a CV which is ATS-compliant.

Whether that CV can then pass human screening at the next stage remains to be seen, as those human intermediaries may not be aware themselves that CVs need to be written with ATS in mind, and thus bin those CVs because they look a bit rubbish.

2. JobCentre career advisors are not likely to be up to speed on the fast pace of developments in work and technology. Candidates are left to inform themselves and become their own recruitment advisors.

Fortunately, social media like reddit are good for sounding out appropriate courses and career paths. And online learning platforms like edX and others offer a wealth of free courses for learning subjects such as computer science, which can be learned at home at a self-directed pace.

3. And finally, government needs to wake up and realise the old days are over. It is common to apply for a job and not hear from the firm for weeks, if not months. And it is depressingly common to not even hear back from a firm following an interview for weeks or months. The candidate is left to think there is something wrong with themselves but the reality is that the system has changed for the worse.

 lI think you're missing the point here. Even though we should increase the number of 'good jobs' available and ensure people are trained, this will not solve the problem of the quality of life crisis. 

When people pay 50% of their salary in rent, they commute for 2hrs/day, and have realistically no prospect of building any wealth (buying a home or saving for retirement), providing a few thousands 'good jobs' will not change anything. 

If you really want to have an impact you should first: 
1. cap the number of properties a person can buy within London. (local buyers are being pushed by foreign investors)
2. cap rent yearly growth (2% for example)
3. ensure the minimum wage rises faster than inflation (with yearly reviews) and all businesses respect it.
4. ensure companies with £500M+ in revenue offer paid internships and contribute to a 'London Housing Fund' since they are the main beneficiaries of this situation with highly skilled yet underpaid professionals. 

If you tackle these first, and then want to create a platform to train professionals and help them find jobs, then you should:  
1. understand the direction of the markets and "wait for the fish where it will swim". For instance, in critical jobs we will need construction workers, fibre optics installers, healthcare support workers; for office jobs we will need ethics regulators, AI developers, cybersecurity experts. Build courses around the cities long-term needs.
2. establish a foundation basis by ensuring everybody (no matter the age) can use and understand computers and AI fundamentals. People should be able to follow online/in-person courses where they can receive support. You can also use young graduates to teach some of these courses.
3. Build curricula in partnerships with London-based companies so that there is a clear progression from the course to an actual job and this improves the probability of locals finding jobs.
4. ensure companies are publishing their job ads on this platform and 'hiring local'.

Don't waste money on consultants build a new jobs platform from scratch, just encourage businesses to post jobs on linkedin/indeed/similar EVEN if they aren't from the  traditional white collar world. I want to be able to hire brickies from linkedin or find a job at a pub on indeed. Don't reinvent the wheel and definitely dont pay deloitte millions to do a bad job

I would like an online platform where it is easily available to find the information on how to get support.

I found Room for Work via the Richmond fair and council newsletter. These 12 sessions,  are for the over 40s to find jobs. These were classroom sessions on various streams eg, CV writing, finding the skills you are good at, using LinkedIn, ChatGPT, interview workshops and more. 
I found the sessions very helpful and friendly. Meeting like-minded people in similar situation was very empathetic and we learnt from one another.

My sessions were held in Hampton. Wish it is available to every borough.

I recommend Room for Work for everyone who wants to understand what is the next step, in finding a rewarding job, in these challenging times and for our age group.

Where is the support? I am unemployed! Also, what is a "good job"? 

I attended a Kingston Adult Education support class. Victoria was fantastic & helped me secure a short term seasonal job in tourism. I now want to return to her when this finishes in September to get another tourism role. I’m over 60 years old & in my previous employment for 32 years. I was clueless about dealing with AI & long application forms. Victoria held my hand until I was successful. 

Compared to 50 years ago - 1975 - school leavers are vastly better qualified and more prepared for the job market. A lot of qualifications at that time were very basic or nonexistent.  There is a lack of work placement opportunities for young school and college leavers.  Schools, colleges, job centres and also employers need to work together to provide them.

I attended a course in Richmond that helps with job search skills. It was brilliant and it gave me confidence at interviews and the trainers helped me polish my CV. They also taught me (over 50) how to find jobs by LinkedIn.

I tried to recommend it to my friends who live in different parts of London, but the course is only for people living in Richmond and Kingston. It's a charity called "Room for Work". It would be great if this is available for everyone in London. I attended the 12 -week course in person but my friends did it online. 

I worked in FE for a while and my view was that the academic terms were way too short for anyone to learn. If you've left school with minimal qualifications, or you want to learn to read/speak english/do numeracy, and you have low job pospects, then you need intensive support. What do you need multiple holidays for? I can't see that remotely helps people progress their lives. You need good well paid teachers (not just well paid managers), intensive teaching time and industry involved so there's a job at the end. My experience was chaotic timetabling (how can students with children plan to study when they aren't told the start date or times until the course begins?!), disrespect to students and the term ending when it's only just started. 

Could the GLA consider creating or supporting a targeted initiative that offers pathways such as:
Paid internships or placements leading to employment
Apprenticeship schemes tailored for mid-career professionals with advanced degrees
IT or professional development courses that bridge skill gaps and enhance employability