What do back to work providers look for in a person to be successful??

Submitted by Dilara_Begum on Thu, 01/12/2011 - 7:30pm

Need advice in applying for positions. I feel i have all the relevant skills that is needed to do the job. I am in the process of completing Advice and Guidance Level 3.
What Qualifications are needed??
Work Experiance??

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Submitted by Tyn on Wed, 07/12/2011 - 1:12pm.

Sorry you don't seem to have had a response from anyone else yet. Your question is quite 'open ended' to be honest and I can only speak as someone who has recruited advisors (consultants as some firms call them). To my mind this is very much a job about the 'person' rather than paper qualificuations. That having been said, NVQ3 (preferably 4)IAG is the 'bread and butter' qualifcation to do the job and I would expect any applicant without it to be willing to undertake the training in their first 12 months and consider the cost of that training for us in their starting pay offer.

The big thing for me then are seeing that the candiate has a bit of 'life experince' under their belt. Other good words I expect to see come out in applications and at interview are 'empathy', 'non-judgemental', 'customer focus'. Then there are the hard skills that will need to exist so the ability to draft a CV from nothing, help with applications, coach and encourage individuals (some of whom don't want to be helped) and canvas employers. Bottom line - their application to me needs to be word perfect and inovative - after all - if they can't put in a decent application for their own job, what chances will their clients have!

So, most of the people I employ are on second, even third+ career, and may well be former clients of Welfare to Work provision. Finally, in these times, they do have to be target driven and understand that there will be expectations placed upon them that at times will put them in conflict between their employer and their client. You only have to read other parts of indusdelta to realise that it's a tough life in the Welfare to Work sector at the moment and compromises are having to be made.

Submitted by Bob Cratchett on Thu, 15/12/2011 - 5:42pm.

Well said Tyn. Safeguarding, Equality & Diversity and Continuous Professional Development are also high on the agenda and an understanding of these would certainly be advisable. These are straitened times financially for W2W providers. Funding has dropped significantly and with it margins. Employers are very heavily focussed on KPIs and outcomes and the focus is now at least as much on functioning like a recruiter as IAG.