AMBITIOUS plans to ensure jobs created by the regeneration of the town go to Croydon residents are being backed by the council.
Councillor Toni Letts, the cabinet member for economic development, said the initiative will revolve around a partnership between the council, Jobcentre Plus, Croydon College and training providers to ensure that people applying for work are fully prepared.
She said: "By the time we have growth in business we want to be able to provide employers with three job-ready applicants for every vacancy.
"Many businesses tell me that people applying to them who have been unemployed for a long time, or who have not worked before, have no basic skills."
She said in addition to some lacking basic reading and writing skills, barriers to impressing employers included poor CVs, lack of interview and people skills, and down to simply turning up badly dressed.
Offering opportunities through training courses to address those problems will form part of the scheme.
Cllr Letts said: "We also have to do more preparation for young people in schools getting them ready for work and thinking about how they present themselves to employers."
The council says there are three major job generation on the horizon; the Westfield/Hammerson redevelopment of the Whitgift Centre, the hoped-for expansion of Gatwick Airport and opportunities for work in construction, retail and information technology as the regeneration of the town unfolds.
It was important, Cllr Letts said, that the job brokerage service worked with employers to come up with a clear pipeline of job opportunities which needed to be filled and ensure applicants from Croydon had the ability to fill them.
In addition to supporting the long-term unemployed, Cllr Letts said the service also needed to support the growing number of middle-aged and middle-management people out of work.
She said she was looking at the idea of setting up an executive job club for these professionals, who would often have been working in the same job for a long time.
This would give them access to different jobs but also offer refresher courses in job applications skills which they may have lost over the years.
The council is already working to ensure the Westfield/Hammerson partnership creates local job opportunities.
As part of the Section 106 planning agreement with the partnership, it is legally obliged to provide skills, training and employment benefits for Croydon residents.
A partnership steering group is being set up to ensure the requirements are implemented.
