Improve Your Skills and Enhance Your Employability

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council have come together in partnership with Southern Regional College to provide a selection of courses under the CREST Programme that will seek to help people gain employment, improve earnings and enhance employment prospects.

The CREST Programme will deliver accredited training to 106 unemployed and inactive people, including the long-term unemployed and people far from the labour market, those on low incomes, lone parents, ex-offenders and people with few or no qualifications.

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Chairperson, Councillor Roisin Mulgrew welcomes this initiative: “We are delighted to offer the CREST Programme which will focus on enhancing the skills and employability of those most in need. Over the next eight months the Programme will work with at least 100 people across the Council district that are either unemployed, inactive or on low income, delivering Level 1 and 2 training in sectors where future employment opportunities have been identified.”

The CREST Programme will offer training opportunities across a range of sectors including, manufacturing, engineering, hospitality and food, retail, construction, life and health science, creative and digital technologies and enterprise. The Programme topics have been tailored to encourage further education and address an identified skills gaps within local enterprises.  Participants on the Programme will also have an opportunity to avail of accredited essential skills in literacy, numeracy and ICT if they do not already hold the equivalent qualification. In order to support progression from training into employment, participants will also be assisted in employment and careers advice, CV development and interview preparation.

Southern Regional College Assistant Director, David Vint praised the commitment of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council to the Programme saying, “The Council is being very innovative in its approach. The CREST Programme will prove to be a valuable community asset and will provide a platform to help stimulate education and employment. It will enable those who undertake the Programme to use their skills to develop new career paths.”

“Southern Regional College in partnership with other statutory and voluntary organisations wishes to deliver real benefits for local people and seeks to be an agent for meaningful social change.”

The training courses are free to attend following an eligibility and application form process, and will be on offer from November 2017 until June 2018. For further details on the courses on offer, eligibility criteria and the application form process, please visit www.facebook.com/SRCCommunityEducation or contact Caroline Coleman or Lesley Hamilton at Southern Regional College on 0300 123 1223 or by emailing: colemanc@src.ac.uk or hamiltonl@src.ac.uk.