PEOPLE looking for work in the Westbury community area could soon have advice and help on hand with the setting up of a locally-based job club.
The Westbury Area Board is planning to fund a weekly job club which will be based in the Market Place at the Crosspoint drop-in centre. The venue will offer advice on writing or updating CVs, help with looking for jobs, use of a computer and free stationery and stamps.
As reported in the 2011 Joint Strategic Assessment for the Westbury Community Area, the March 2011 claimant count figures show that the percentage of the working age population who were claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance in the Westbury Community Area was 2.6%, the fourth highest in the county. This compares to 2.1% across the whole of the county.
David Jenkins, who is a Wiltshire councillor on the Westbury Area Board, and the president of Westbury Chamber of Commerce, is enthusiastic about how the new job club can help the unemployed.
“It is at its early stages, but it’s certainly something I’m very excited about,” he said. “It’s something very positive to help people in the town find work.”
The move to start up and fund a job club was triggered by the issues raised by local people at the ‘Westbury Forward’ community planning event held earlier this year. The event, which was jointly hosted by the area board and the BA13 community area partnership, looked at up-to-date statistics on a range of health and social issues in the community, ranging from employment and educational achievements through to subjects like smoking, anti-social behaviour and heart disease.
Priorities raised by local people form part of the community plan currently being drafted by the partnership.
