European Social Fund in England
2007 - 2013
“You'll always find new work as long as you're prepared to retrain”
Paul Gubbins from Westward Ho! was one of 130 workers to lose their job at Barnstaple door-making factory Leaderflush Shapland in June this year.
The company cited the recession and a massive 73% fall in profits as the reason for making the redundancies.
With such a large number of people losing their jobs, a lot has been happening behind the scenes in an attempt to get as many as possible back to work.
Paul found a retraining course through the North Devon Pathfinder Trust which runs the network of Pathfinder Learning Centres across North Devon.
As a result, Paul is now employed by Guarantor Security Services working at Sandymouth Holiday Park in Bude as a security officer and says he is "delighted" with his new job.
He said: "This is the fourth time I've been made redundant and I've learnt that you'll always find new work as long as you're prepared to retrain for industries that are still doing OK."
"From day one I found all the Pathfinder staff enthusiastic and genuinely interested in my future.”
"The process of arranging the training and the application for the Security Industry Authority (SIA) card went very smoothly and the help and job search feedback that I received from Sue Carder of Pathfinder was excellent.”
"Being able to access Pathfinder's services at their local Centre in Westward Ho! as well as Barnstaple was also a real bonus."
George Curry, Pathfinder's chief executive, said: "It's surprising how many jobs are still being filled, despite the growing numbers of redundancies."
"At times of high unemployment, many employers stop advertising their vacancies which gives an impression of there being fewer jobs available than there actually are."
"We can help people find those hidden jobs and in many cases help with any retraining that maybe required."
"In Paul's case we were able to use the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and European funding available through a project called Skills for Jobs to pay for his retraining and his SIA Licence."
Project information (September 2009)
The Skills for Jobs project is co-financed through the European Social Fund and the Learning and Skills Council. Working Links is contracted to deliver Skills for Jobs Devon and receive around £1.5 million for the project which is due to run until December 2010. One of its sub contractors is Pathfinder Trust Ltd.
More information on North Devon Pathfinder Trust
Contact North Devon Pathfinder Trust via George Curry, North Devon Pathfinder Trust, 3 The
Square, Braunton, EX33 2JB
gcurry@pathfinder.org.uk