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Northern Regional College Essential Skills

Employment Support Programme


Help With Essential Skills

Help With Essential Skills
 

Do you want to improve your reading, writing, maths or ICT skills, or know someone who needs help with these essential skills? If you are over the age of 16 an Essential Skills course may help you to get on at home, work or in life.

Taking an Essential Skills course can offer a wide range of benefits, including improving your reading, writing, speaking and working with numbers.  These courses are free and can be completed at various locations such as a college, workplace, or community organisation, and at different times of the day. The classes are generally small and informal.  By enrolling in an Essential Skills course, you can learn at your own pace and apply the skills you learn to everyday situations.  Additionally, completing an Essential Skills course can lead to recognised qualifications that are valued by employers.

Essential Skills courses can be truly transformative, opening up new opportunities for those who take them.  For example, some have learned to read a newspaper for the first time, gaining access to important information about their community. Others have been able to successfully complete job applications and secure employment, or read notes from their children's school and help with homework for the first time.  Essential Skills courses also provide valuable computer skills, enabling individuals to stay connected with loved ones through the internet.

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Find out what other Employment Support Programmes are available.


Labour Market Partnership

Funded by the Department for Communities, Department for the Economy and supported by Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council, Antrim and Newtownabbey Labour Market Partnership will deliver a range of programmes to help our residents gain the work-ready skills, experience or qualifications needed to move into employment or to move into a better job.  View our action plan here.

This information has been provided by the Labour Market Partnership (LMP)

LMPs)have been established across the Councils in Northern Ireland to help improve employability outcomes and labour market conditions locally.  It is hoped that by working through multi-agency partnerships we will be able to achieve regional objectives whilst being flexible to meet local needs.

The LMP approach has been introduced by DFC to ensure employability delivery is reflective of the needs of local employers and residents. 

LMPs will play a role in supporting ‘Employability NI’, which is DfC’s regional approach to supporting those who are unemployed to get back to.

Employability NI is designed to provide a range of interventions to:

  • Deliver a reduction in economic inactivity and long-term unemployment;
  • Provide increased support for those with physical/mental health conditions and disabilities; and
  • Implement an intervention that provides a collaborative nature between Central Government Departments and Local Council area to offer direct and unique interventions.  Hence LMP’s 

The ultimate aim of the partnership will be to get more of our residents into better jobs.

Contact us at skills@antrimandnewtownabbey.gov.uk for help to get into work or for help to find employees.