Looking to get into employment, education or training? Don't know where to start? Join the West of England Works team and get some handy hints. 

The West of England Works team has put together a list of helpful resources and their top tips for finding employment in lockdown. 

Harriet's tip:

1) Enroll yourself to online courses. 

Lots of organisations are now delivering courses online. Taking part in these will look great on your CV, it'll boost employablity and give you something to focus on whilst in lockdown.

Popular courses include; Employability Skills, English and Maths, Customer Services, Health and Social Care and loads more. Have a look online and see what people are delivering near you. You can also book a space on our Step to Futures programme, where one of our trained youth workers will sit down with you and help with your job search, training applications, CVs or next steps in education. 

Phoebes resources: 

1) Phoebes put together a list of websites for you to learn new skills online:

Choose from hundreds of free online courses with https://www.futurelearn.com/

Browse free courses with https://www.udemy.com/

50 free online courses with https://www.creativeboom.com/

Creative workshops with https://www.skillshare.com/

And, check out what courses and workshops we're offering under what's on.

Hetty's hints:

1) Find a good online searching tool or platform e.g, indeed, Reed, Facebook, Linkedin etc.

This will help you find the right sort of job/opportunity for you. Make sure that you use filters so you can narrow down the types of jobs your looking for, you can change areas and locations, job roles and salary types to help the job search be easier.

2) Research the company.

Find a job you're really interested in, do company research so you know what type of organisation they are. Check out their website to get a better understanding of the work they do, you could even call the company and get more information about the types of roles they offer, or pop them an email to show your interest. Being able to put yourself out there shows that you're eager and keen, which can go a long way. 

3) Be patient.

It's a full time job looking for a job. You may be unsuccessful at first and feel like you're sending out loads of different applications and not having any luck. Don't worry though, you are in the majority, so persevere, keep going and eventually you get the job that you want. 

4) Read the job descriptions.

Make sure you have read through the whole job description and have a good understanding of whats expected from you. Most will have a person specification, these are very important to look through as they tell you if it's the type of job for you, and if the job is suited to your needs as well as theirs. This will help you be sure you have the right skill-set and that you'll enjoy the work. If you don't have all the skills listed, don't worry, think about things you've done in the past that could be transferable.