Member Article

Wetherby social entrepreneur secures European funding to aid jump to employment

Yorkshire-based social enterprise Bizenko has secured European Social Fund finance to aid the move from education to employment.

Bizenko is the brainchild of entrepreneur Nick Palmer, and the European funding is intended to help people in North Yorkshire with a two day employability seminar in York run by the firm.

Bizenko Social Enterprise Ltd. run seminars in schools and colleges to help individuals understand more about their work options, as well as to challenge some of the myths surrounding employment and career planning.

Nick Palmer (pictured) said: “I’m delighted that this particular Bizenko Social Enterprise project has been financed by the European Union.

“The European Social Fund has a stated aim to “increase employment and develop a skilled and adaptable workforce”. Our seminar will address this objective with a practical, employer-designed event.”

“This is a big topic right now. Youth unemployment rates in Yorkshire and Humberside remain higher than for most other regions, in particular the South and South East.

“In addition, each Autumn there is a new wave of graduates and school leavers trying to accelerate their career planning”.

“Most information a job seeker gets from the employment market is either a marketing message promising riches or instructions for an administrative task such as “How to write a CV”. We want to break the mould and train the individuals to think like a business thinks”.

He said that the seminar would be suited to individuals who might want to work in either the private, public or third sectors. He said the commercial thought process was critical to every career choice, even those in organisations that didn’t make profits.

The theme for the two-day event will be “Commercial Awareness” and will cover the skills that most employers consider to be lacking in job-applicants to help them find ‘career inspiration.’

Quoting a survey from the Confederation of British Industry, Mr Palmer said: “Employers Organisations have been calling for improved levels of commercial awareness in students for some years.

“In 2011, as many as 70% of CBI members stated that more needed to be done to improve employability skills within young people.

“Anecdotally, we’re aware that this sentiment definitely remains in 2014, so we’re delivering a solution”.

Any recent graduate, school-leaver or unemployed job-seekers can sign up for the free event via email at seminars@bizenko.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .