The opportunity
Following the success of the “I want carrots!” healthy eating course in June/July 2010, we had a review meeting with the Harefield children’s centre managers, Sharon Atherton and Denise Allard, to discuss the possibility of working together again. They decided to commission another ‘I want carrots!’ course in March/April 2011, but we also wanted to understand the other challenges in the village and whether there were any targets that Life’s Canvas could help the Children’s Centre meet.

So Sharon commissioned Life's Canvas and Karen Munro a local professional Careers Advisor www.karen-munro.co.uk to work together to design a course which would help long term unemployed mums, dads and carers return to work after a break.  Working together was enabled us to pull together our joint expertise in Life Coaching and Training with valuable and professional Careers Advice and Guidance"

We agreed the course would be designed to help participants:

  • Gain clarity on their career / training goals
  • Identify their key strengths and skills
  • Develop their self confidence & motivation to achieve success
  • Work through their barriers to success such as childcare options/cost; worries about being financially better off; fear of change/failure
  • Identify a clear direction on how to find a job or appropriate training course
  • Understand how to present themselves to their full potential on paper and in person, having practised CV / application form writing

The ‘Get that job!’ course outline
1.   Who am I and what do I want my future to be? - delivered by life’s canvas

  • The benefits of working
  • Personality style using True Colours profile
  • Defining individual career goals

2.  Get motivated! – delivered by life’s canvas

  • Positive thinking & building your self belief
  • Identifying the skills you can offer an employer

3.    The practicalities of going back to work – delivered by life’s canvas

  • Barriers to working and how to overcome them
  • Managing and preparing for returning to work
  • Thinking creatively about your career options – identifying career paths that suit personality and skills/interests.

4.    The C.V - How to Write a Winning CV – delivered by Karen Munro

  • Personal Profiles/Statements (I gave out a list of example profiles as a guide)
  • Tailoring your CV and marketing your skills to a job advert
  • On line and written application forms

5.    The Job Search – delivered by Karen Munro

  • Where to look for jobs
  • The importance of Networking
  • How to prepare for an interview

6.   Presenting yourself in person – delivered by a image consultant

  • Making the right first impression
  • Wearing clothes and colours that suit you

The outcome
The course ran in November and December 2010 and it was a great success – with one Mum being offered a role within school hours by the end of the course! All the Mums & Dad who completed the course had enjoyed the quality ‘thinking time’ focused on themselves. In particular, many of them were pleased to identify their core skills, think about what they want from their next role and how to feel more confident about achieving it with a detailed action plan. They also all felt pleased to have spent time working on their CV which can be a major barrier for people returning to work after a break.

From the Children’s Centre point of view, they are now confident that they can demonstrate their support for parents and the community with regards to getting back into employment and that this will be positively reflected in any future Ofsted inspection. We agreed that in future it would improve the course even further to replace week 6 with an ‘Interview skills’ workshop.

Testimonials from the Mums & Dads who completed the course:
When asked “what was the most important thing you have learnt from this course?”, the participants responded:

“What things I will look for when going back to work and what job roles I should be seeking.
Identifying the skills I have”

“This course has given me more self confidence”

“I have been able to present my CV and start to network to find the right role”

“I now feel ready to start my job search”