Skills Funding Agency

'The Next Step to Success'

Since it was introduced in August, the Next Step adult careers service has helped more than a quarter of a million people look at their options and prepare for their futures.

Next Step offers free and impartial careers information and is available online, over the telephone on 0800 100 900 and with a local adviser face-to-face. The service gives advice to help people achieve their ambitions and move forward in work and life, taking control of their destiny and setting them on the road to success.

In these uncertain times, Next Step can provide a lifeline to those people who are facing redundancy and need support to enable them to get straight back to work.

When Suzanne Welburn, 39, was made redundant from the company where she had worked for more than 21 years, she was absolutely devastated and felt as though she was on the scrap heap. But thanks to the help and support she received from Next Step, she has picked herself up and is now on course to a new career as a teaching assistant.

Suzanne, who lives near Hull, had worked her way up the company and was an Engineering Resource co-ordinator in charge of a small team when her employer had to make redundancies. "I must have cried for five days when I got the news," she said. "I had grown up with the company and I didn't know what to do with myself. I was in shock. I felt as though I had no purpose in life with no transferable skills to offer another employer. Your job makes you who you are and without it, I was lost."

It was one of her former colleagues who told her about Next Step and since she contacted the service she hasn't looked back. Suzanne was thinking about a change of career and Next Step helped her with her CV, job applications and course searches.

"My adviser was brilliant," Suzanne added. "She has done so much to help me. It was really scary, finding myself out of work for the first time in more than 20 years. My confidence was low and I believed I didn't have anything to offer, but my adviser did all she could to help, did not once make me feel stupid or worthless, just genuinely wanted to help me get back into work. Any information I needed, she got for me"

Suzanne is doing a NVQ Level 2 S.T.L.S (Teaching Assistant) qualification and volunteering in a local primary school to get experience, as well as brushing up on her maths and English. "I am absolutely loving it and have got something to get up for in the mornings," she said. "I am helping the children with their reading and writing, and it's so rewarding working in a school, particularly with Christmas coming."

Suzanne hopes to get a job as a teaching assistant when she finishes her course in the summer and maybe move into teaching eventually, a career she considered when she left school. "Next Step helped me get my confidence back and see that I had lots of transferable skills to offer. They helped me get back on the right track and be confident and positive about my exciting future ahead."

Everyone can register online with ‘My Next Step', a secure, personal online space where they will be able to assess their skills, build a CV, find a suitable course and discover what other support, including financial assistance, could be available.

There is a dedicated redundancy support  area of the website where individuals whose jobs are under threat can access lots of useful information aimed at helping them get straight back to work.

It includes advice on skills development, writing CVs, interview techniques, how to find out about what jobs are out there and much more.

Next Step adviser Emma Bowers has recently been advising workers who are considering making a change.

"There are things that people can do to help themselves when applying for jobs," Emma said. "These include focusing their job searches, rather than making haphazard applications, and thinking about identifying their transferable skills and achievements and confidently communicating these to potential employers.  

"By putting together tailored, functional-style CVs, individuals stand a much better chance of making a good first impression with any potential employers. I would also advise people to try networking and making proactive, speculative applications directly to employers, rather than waiting to apply for advertised vacancies.  By doing this, people can uncover roles which will attract fewer applicants.

"It is often a lack of confidence that stops people taking steps to change their lives, with people feeling trapped and without any goals to strive towards. Next Step aims to help people overcome these barriers and create a positive future by changing their lives, whether in their current job, by changing career or taking the first step on the career ladder."

To find out how Next Step can help, search online for Next Step, call 0800 100 900 between 8am - 10pm, 7 days a week, for telephone advice or to make a face-to-face appointment at a location near you.

direct.gov.uk/nextstep