For immediate release 3rd February 2010
For the attention of the News / Business Editor

Following the success of the City Strategy project, Business Builder, the commercial arm of the Leicestershire Chamber of Commerce, has secured two new contracts to work in partnership with Jobcentre Plus, Leicester City Council, the local Multi-Access Centre programme, other agencies involved in supporting people back into work, and local training providers.

The two contracts are:-

Routeway Co-ordination - to co-ordinate pre-employment training activity for local people & ensure that this training provision meets the needs of local employers.

Employer Brokerage - to co-ordinate employer engagement activity across key sectors, working closely with partners to provide employers with simplified access to all services related to employment and skills.

We are delighted that these contracts enable us to closely replicate the work we did under the City Strategy contract, and build on the partnership successes of the past two years, and that we can add to our existing team to deliver the outcomes required. Both contracts will be delivered under a new One Skilled Workforce project brand.

We need to recruit the following roles into the Employer Brokerage team:

Employer Engagement Co-ordinators (x4) – one for each of the following sectors:
Retail, Construction, Business/Contact Centres, or Public Sector
Salary: £20 – 24,000/year + benefits

These roles provide the key links in the knowledge network with & between employers & partner organisations regarding employment & skills issues & trends in each sector. We therefore seek self starters who have a recruitment or sales background and the ability to broker win:win solutions in a business setting.

You will need an understanding of one of the sectors listed and have the experience to conduct meetings with employers designed to engage them with the local employment & skills agenda. You will have activity & engagement targets to meet so you’ll need to be outcome focused, but also able to balance the need to deliver results with the time required to build successful links with partner agencies, employers, training providers and jobseekers.

You will work in a close and supportive team, focusing on enhancing the service provided to local employers, in order to gain greater numbers of opportunities for those unemployed people who most need help. Specific training will be provided to assist you in forging positive & successful working relationships with partner organisations and employers.

These roles will carry targets for successful promote the co-ordinated partnership employment and training offer to employers in order to optimise levels of engagement & ultimately to contribute to the over-arching local & regional goals relating to employment & skills.

You will need to demonstrate:
• a good understanding of the business & employment issues in one of the key sectors listed above
• excellent verbal and written communication skills and the ability to influence, broker and negotiate effective solutions, creating win:win outcomes for all parties
• 2-4 years of relevant experience building business relationships with internal and external customers
• how you have met and exceeded performance targets whilst maintaining a high quality of delivery
• excellent teamworking, prioritising & task management skills
• a creative, practical & flexible approach to problem-solving
• good office administration & MS Office skills, with excellent attention to detail